The US presidential administration issued a warning to its employees against using their official positions to play on the stock exchanges or bet on prediction markets. The corresponding letter, as reported by American media, including Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, was sent to employees of the Donald Trump administration on March 24.
The Financial Times wrote on March 23 that oil traders made suspicious trades 15 minutes before US President Donald Trump published a post about “fruitful negotiations” with Iran, after which energy prices fell. At that time, more than 6,200 transactions were executed with Brent and WTI futures contracts on the New York Stock Exchange for a total amount of about $850 million.
On the night of April 8, before the announcement that the United States and Iran had agreed to a two-week truce, several anonymous accounts bet on the corresponding event on the Polymarket predictions market. I mentioned news agency. Bets were made from recently opened accounts and brought those who made them from 48.5 thousand to 200 thousand dollars.
In January, the Associated Press noted that bets were made on Polymarket using the same scheme, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in profits, in connection with the US operation in which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was arrested and transported to the United States. These same accounts were later used to bet on events related to the war with Iran.
Officially, the White House denies that inside information is used in any way to make a profit in the stock and prediction markets. Trump administration spokesman Davis Engel male BBC News said that “any suggestion that administration officials are involved in such activity without evidence is baseless and irresponsible reporting.” He stressed that civil servants are guided by ethical principles that prohibit the use of internal information. Engel also stressed that the “one interest” that President Trump himself has and will always be guided by is “the best interest of the American people.”
The war with Iran, which the United States and Israel started on February 28, caused a sharp rise in global energy prices. The announcement of the armistice with Iran immediately led to a sharp decline in oil prices and an increase in prices on American and European stock exchanges.