‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary reacts to the FBI’s recent raid of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan during an appearance on ‘Varney & Co.’
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan’s future is currently in jeopardy after the FBI raided the 26-year-old’s SoHo apartment.
The FBI search came early Wednesday morning on the heels of the betting platform having predicted former President Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
A spokesperson for Polymarket called the move “obvious political retribution” against the company for “providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election.”
‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary reacts to Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, inset, being under investigation by the FBI after the platform predicted former President Trump’s election victory. (Fox News / Fox News)
“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary gave a candid reaction to the company’s bold response, arguing that the raid was “not at all” a form of political punishment.
“The rules are very, very plain and transparent about online gambling and betting. And what is going on here is to scrutinize whether any of those rules are broken. This is a lot of money. There was reportedly a whale that made a very large gain on this,” O’Leary weighed in during an appearance on “Varney & Co.”
The raid, as first reported by the New York Post, involved FBI agents seizing Coplan’s phone and other electronic devices while the 26-year-old CEO was at his SoHo apartment.
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“They’re just going to look at it and say, ‘show us the accounts, source the transactions and show us the proceeds. The use of funds transferred in, transferred out.’ And it’s all online. It’s all on the blockchain. They’ll be able to do this in a matter of a week or so to see if this company, in fact, broke the rules,” said O’Leary.
Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on legislation aimed at cracking down on sports betting on ‘The Big Money Show.’
During his appearance on “Varney & Co.,” O’Leary predicted the Polymarket CEO’s fate, comparing it to the disgraced crypto CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.
O’Leary added that it would be a “bad outcome” for Coplan if he did in fact break the U.S. betting rules.
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“At the end of the day, they are abiding by a ruling and a settlement. If I were on that board, I would not be putting out political statements about the election. It has nothing to do with that. This is about getting a good lawyer and being transparent and keeping your mouth shut. That’s my advice for him,” O’Leary said on Thursday.
“Otherwise, he’s going to learn to spend some time in a place he doesn’t want to be.”
FOX Business’ Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
