FILE PHOTO: The Federal Bureau of Investigation seal is seen at FBI headquarters in Washington, U.S. June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Federal law enforcement agents raided the downtown New York home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday, seizing his phone and electronics, the company confirmed.
The early-morning raid of Coplan's SoHo apartment followed last week's presidential election, in which bettors on Polymarket, an offshore, crypto-fueled election gambling website, had for weeks put Donald Trump's odds drastically higher than those of Vice President Kamala Harris, in sharp divergence from opinion polls.
Coplan, Polymarket's 26-year-old founder, was roused from his bed at 6 a.m. by FBI agents demanding he give them his electronic devices.
The DOJ is investigating Polymarket for allegedly allowing U.S.-based users to bet on the site, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday evening.
Polymarket declined to comment on those allegations but a spokesperson said the FBI raid was "obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election."
The company told Reuters Coplan had not been arrested or taken into custody.
The FBI declined to comment. The Department of Justice and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on the raid.
In the run-up to the presidential election, the site gained widespread attention for the way it placed Trump's odds high above those of Harris, when opinion polls had for months shown the race in a dead heat.
Polymarket, which does not allow trading in the U.S., also gained scrutiny after a mystery French trader, known as the Polymarket whale, made large bets on Trump winning the election.
The trader's huge wagers came in tandem with a dramatic rise in Trump's chances on the exchanges.
He walked away with more than $46 million in profit.
Last week, France's gambling regulator said it was examining whether Polymarket complies with French laws.
(Reporting by Michelle Conlin in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Stephen Coates)
