The US Justice Department has opened an investigation into a series of suspicious oil trades totaling $2.6 billion that were carried out just minutes before major announcements by President Donald Trump and Iran during the war, ABC reports.
According to the report, the case involves at least four incidents in which investors "bet" on a drop in oil prices and made large profits following the president's announcements. The Justice Department and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the American regulator, have opened a joint investigation into at least four of the trades.
In the first case, on March 23, 15 minutes before Trump announced on Truth Social that the US and Iran had held "very good and productive talks regarding a complete resolution of the war in the Middle East" and that he had instructed the Pentagon to suspend "any attack on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days," trades totaling more than $500 million were placed on a drop in oil prices.
On April 7, US time, just an hour and a half before the ultimatum he had issued to Iran was set to expire, Trump announced on Truth Social a two-week ceasefire following talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistani army chief Asim Munir. Hours before that announcement, trades totaling $960 million were placed on a drop in oil prices.
On April 17, 20 minutes before Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced on social media that the Strait of Hormuz had been reopened to traffic, trades totaling $760 million were placed on the possibility of a drop in oil prices.
On April 21, just hours before another deadline set by Trump was due to expire, the president published a post on Truth Social announcing an extension of the ceasefire without an end date. "We were asked to suspend the attack on Iran," he wrote, while also instructing the military to "continue the blockade and remain alert and ready."
Fifteen minutes before the post, trades totaling $430 million were placed on the possibility of a drop in oil prices.
According to ABC, the data it has obtained does not identify the traders and does not prove that they acted on inside information, but the timing of the trades triggered the suspicions in question. The two agencies investigating the incidents declined to comment. The series of trades was first reported by Reuters.
The investigation comes against the backdrop of a recurring pattern of suspicious trades on betting platforms around US military operations. About two weeks ago, US special forces soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested on suspicion of betting on Polymarket on the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro based on information to which he had been exposed, just hours before he took part in the operation to capture him in January. He allegedly made a profit of more than $409,000.
