FBI Conducts Raid on Betting Firm Boss Who Accurately Predicted Trump's Victory, Seizes Phone, Computer

The FBI recently conducted a dawn raid on the Manhattan apartment of Shayne Coplan, the CEO of Polymarket, a prediction market platform. This operation took place early Wednesday morning, just a week after Polymarket accurately forecasted Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election.

The FBI seized Coplan's phone and other electronic devices during the raid, which has been described by insiders as "grand political theater at its worst." Sources suggest that the raid was politically motivated, possibly as retribution for Polymarket's accurate predictions, which outperformed traditional polls.

Polymarket had shown Trump with a 58.6% chance of winning the morning before Election Day, compared to Vice President Kamala Harris' odds of 41.4%. Despite the platform's success, it has faced scrutiny and legal challenges in the past, including a $1.4 million penalty in 2022 for operating without proper registration in the U.S. The platform has since blocked access to American users, although some traders reportedly circumvent this restriction using virtual private networks.

Coplan, who founded Polymarket in 2020, has maintained that the platform is non-partisan and serves as an alternative data source for the public. Despite the controversy, Polymarket's accurate predictions have earned praise from figures like Elon Musk and statistician Nate Silver, the latter of whom joined the company as an adviser.

However, the recent FBI action has cast a shadow over the platform's achievements, raising questions about the intersection of politics and predictive analytics.