The F.B.I. carried out a search on Wednesday morning at the New York City home of Shayne Coplan, the founder of the betting website Polymarket, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
The raid was part of a criminal investigation by the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, one of the people said. The investigation appears focused on whether Mr. Coplan, 26, ran Polymarket as an unlicensed commodities exchange, allowing users in the United States to place bets in violation of a settlement with the U.S. government, the person said. Polymarket rose to prominence this fall for offering odds on the presidential election.
The F.B.I. seized Mr. Coplan’s electronic devices, including a phone, the person said.
A law enforcement official confirmed that F.B.I. agents had conducted “court-authorized law enforcement activity” at Mr. Coplan’s address early Wednesday, but declined to elaborate.
Election betting is a murky legal area in the United States. In 2022, Polymarket agreed to stop offering its services to U.S.-based users after settling with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for operating without registration. The company paid a $1.4 million fine.
After the settlement, it was an “open secret” that users in the United States could still gain access to the site with virtual private networks, a former employee previously told The New York Times. On social media, Polymarket’s customers exchanged tips on how to get around the prohibition.
Polymarket soared in popularity during the presidential campaign. While polls showed a close race, the site’s odds gave former President Donald J. Trump a large advantage over Vice President Kamala Harris.
A spokesman for the company said the F.B.I. raid was “obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration.”
In a post on X, Mr. Coplan said the Biden administration was making “a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents.”
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
Some details of the investigation were reported earlier by Bloomberg and The New York Post.
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