FBI raids Polymarket founder’s home in criminal probe of election betting platform
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The FBI searched the New York City home of Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan as part of a criminal investigation into the election betting platform, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The investigation, at least in part, involves whether Polymarket violated a prior settlement with the U.S. government by allowing American-based users access to its platform.
The 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission required Polymarket to pay a $1.4 million penalty for operating an illegal unregistered “event markets” that allowed users to bet on events taking place in the future, such as who will win a presidential election.
Coplan posted on X, “It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents.”
He added that the company is “deeply committed to being non-partisan.”
Polymarket correctly predicted Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election last week.
“This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election, ” a company spokesman added. “Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections. We charge no fees, take no trading positions, and allow observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good.”
(MEMPHIS, TN) — The gatekeepers of Elvis Presley’s estate are trying to recover a potential trove of records and memorabilia left behind by the King of Rock and Roll, according to a lawsuit filed in California.
The lawsuit, filed just before 6 p.m. on Dec. 24, is a fitting coda to a year that saw Presley’s iconic Memphis home nearly auctioned off as part of what federal authorities now call an attempt to defraud both Presley’s family and Elvis Presley Enterprises.
Now, the operators of Graceland allege “irreplaceable” items they bought more than three decades ago from Presley’s longtime manager, Col. Tom Parker, have fallen into the hands of people who have no right to them and are now trying to sell them in an online auction.
“It is now clear that some of the material that the parties to the Parker Acquisition intended to be transferred to [Elvis Presley Enterprises], never was,” the lawsuit claims. Despite “clear and repeated demands” that the defendants stop hawking what was not theirs to sell, those demands were “ignored,” according to the filing.
At issue is a collection that allegedly includes everything from contracts and agreements signed by Presley, to a telegram from associates congratulating Elvis and his then-wife Priscilla on the birth of their daughter, Lisa Marie. Elvis Presley Enterprises contends the cache of memorabilia is valued at upwards of $2 million, though the “unique” artifacts are “priceless.”
The items were listed on the website of GWS Auctions, a California company that boasts sales of “celebrity” items from the likes of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Cash. The Presley items listed in the lawsuit appeared as available online in mid-November under the heading “The Lost Collection of Elvis, Col. Tom Parker & More.” Elvis Presley Enterprises alleges the auctioneeing company advertised while knowing the sellers had no legal right to the items, which the company denies.
The origin of the dispute dates back to 1990, when Col. Parker, “known as a meticulous record keeper and a real pack rat who held onto everything,” directly sold EPE “perhaps the greatest collection of Elvis-related documents and memorabilia ever held by anyone other than Elvis himself,” the suit alleged, adding it is the “entire collection” as it pertained to “Elvis and Elvis related memorabilia, irrespective of where such material was located.”
EPE acquired the collection as part of its ongoing effort to catalogue, preserve and showcase artifacts connected to the life and career of one of rock and roll’s first global superstars. One of the company’s executives, Jack Soden, “had dealt with and known Col. Parker for many years” and said he “was acting with the authority of Elvis’s widow Priscilla Presley, was intent on acquiring from Parker every scrap of Elvis-related material Parker owned.”
The lawsuit alleges company leaders believed all the items covered in the agreement “had been collected,” only now to find otherwise. Some of those items “ended up in the possession” of one of Parker’s former longtime employees after Parker’s death in 1997, according to the filing.
Then in December 2021, the lawsuit says, the co-founder of GWS Auctions, Brigitte Kruse, reached out to both Priscilla Presley and Graceland’s chief archivist to tell them she knew that the employee had items that should be in EPE’s custody. Kruse allegedly even shared videos of her discussions with him acknowledging who owned what.
Kruse allegedly told Graceland’s archivist Angela Marchese “that she knew these materials were involved in ‘theft’ and rightfully belonged to EPE,” according to a signed declaration by Marchese obtained by ABC News.
When a Presley executive confronted the employee directly, he backtracked, saying it had all been “a misunderstanding,” and he only had “photocopies,” not originals, the suit says.
“Some of the very documents and memorabilia Kruse claimed [the employee] possessed have now been listed for sale,” the suit alleges, adding “it is apparent” how those items “made their way” to the auction house.
“Kruse listed the Property for sale despite knowing, as she made clear in her email to Marchese and contemporaneous conversations with Marchese, that Kruse knew these items to be stolen Property rightfully belonging to [EPE],” the suit said.
EPE sent a cease-and-desist letter to Kruse earlier this month.
In response, a lawyer for GWS said the company “denies any wrongdoing whatsoever,” and denies that the “characterizations of the communications between” Kruse and Marchese “are accurate or complete.” GWS also denied EPE’s property interest and said that they would “proceed with the auction,” according to the suit and appended exhibits.
In a statement to ABC News, Kruse pushed back on the allegations against her and her company, saying that the assertions are “unfounded and without merit.”
“EPE and Graceland’s assertions are unfounded and without merit. This is merely another attempt to discredit our founder and the company. Under no circumstances would we engage in the sale of “stolen” items, and this collection was sought after by auction houses globally,” Kruse said.
“The items in question successfully passed our auction house’s due diligence process and were subsequently offered for public sale. Furthermore, no police report has ever been filed by EPE/Graceland, and the owner has possessed this collection for several decades,” Kruse added.
As of Monday night, the auction site is still up, though bidding is closed.
The keepers of the Presley legacy say the decades-long story of Elvis is one of people trying to profit off of the King – and often at the expense of him and his family.
In May, Elvis’ idyllic Graceland retreat was mysteriously announced for auction by an unknown company calling itself “Naussany Investments,” which claimed that Lisa Marie used Graceland as collateral to take out a $3.8 million loan and had not repaid it.
The ensuing investigation stretched all the way from Memphis to Florida, where the notary whose fake seal was used for the alleged fraud spoke up — and Presley’s granddaughter countersued, stopping a possible sale. In August, the alleged perpetrator behind that alleged fraud was arrested in the Ozarks: Lisa Findley was apprehended on Aug. 16, the 47th anniversary of Elvis’ death. Federal prosecutors charged the Missouri woman with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. The case is still pending, and Findley is last listed in custody in Tennessee.
“People have been trying to take from Elvis since Elvis was Elvis,” Joel Weinshanker, managing partner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, told ABC News this fall. “Elvis was a human being. He was a really good human being,” he said. “Pick on somebody else. Have a heart, have a conscience. And even if you don’t have a heart or have a conscience — know that you won’t get away with it.”
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ban on drone operations in several areas of New Jersey until Jan. 17, unless operators are granted special permission from the government due to “special security reasons.”
Uncrewed aerial drones have been lighting up the sky at night in New Jersey and nearby states for weeks, since about mid-November, leading to concern from residents and speculation online. Some had demanded answers from local and state officials for answers.
The temporary flight restrictions, which are set to last until Jan. 17, have been implemented beginning Wednesday in the following locations: Hamilton, Bridgewater, Cedar Grove, North Brunswick, Metuchen, Evesham, Camden, Gloucester City, Westampton, South Brunswick, Edison, Branchburg, Sewaren, Jersey City, Harrison, Elizabeth, Bayonne, Winslow, Burlington, Clifton, Hancocks Bridge and Kearny.
The restrictions say no uncrewed aircraft systems can operate within a nautical miles of the airspace specified in each Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, including from the ground up to 400 feet. Recreational drones are allowed to operate up to 400 feet, under FAA rules.
The previously issued temporary flight restrictions for Bedminster and Picatinny Arsenal remain in place.
The government may use “deadly force” against the drones if they pose an “imminent security threat,” the NOTAM said.
Pilots who fail to abide by those restrictions could be “intercepted, detained, and interviewed by the law enforcement/security personnel.” The FAA said it could also take administrative action, including imposing civil penalties and suspending or revoking the operators’ certificates, as well as pursuing criminal charges.
This ban comes after Sunday’s press briefing where an FAA official said there have “without a doubt” been drones flying over New Jersey, pointing to the fact that there are nearly a million drones are registered in the U.S.
The FBI has received more than 5,000 tips in the last few weeks about drone sightings in New Jersey and other states, said a multiagency statement, which was released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the FAA and the Department of Defense.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” the joint statement said.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — An alleged portrait is beginning to emerge of the 17-year-old boy who opened fire at his Nashville high school on Wednesday, killing one student and wounding a second student, according to police.
Solomon Henderson, who was armed with a pistol, fired multiple shots in the cafeteria at Antioch High School around 11:09 a.m., Nashville police said.
Henderson confronted a 16-year-old girl, Josselin Corea Escalante, in the cafeteria and shot and killed her, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at a news conference.
Another victim, a 17-year-old boy, was injured with a graze wound and has been treated and released from the hospital, Drake said.
The suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head while he was in the cafeteria, police said.
Another student was transported to the hospital after suffering a facial injury from a fall, police said.
The suspect rode the bus to school Wednesday morning and later went to the bathroom to “retrieve his weapon,” Drake said.
A motive is not known, police said.
“There are some materials on the internet that we’re looking at,” Drake said.
According to a detailed analysis conducted by SITE Intelligence, the suspected shooter praised mass shooters and showed an affinity for extremist views.
Online material allegedly written by Henderson “detailed the individual’s apparent far-right politics, shaped by fringe online forums,” SITE reported.
“Henderson was highly in fringe online communities, including several known neo-Nazi venues. Across these sites and his writings, Henderson expressed admiration for far-right and incel mass shooters,” SITE reported.
According to the intelligence group, Henderson claimed online that the school shooter in the Abundance Life Christian School attack in December, Samantha Rupnow, followed him on his X accounts. Additionally, documents online allegedly written by Henderson “detail his admiration” of Christchurch, New Zealand shooter Brenton Tarrant, the suspect in the Slovakian gay bar shooting in 2022 and other mass shooters, according to SITE.
The intelligence group reported that Henderson also appeared to “post photos of himself in attire commonly associated with neo-Nazis.”
As the investigation into the school shooting continues, officials said Wednesday it’s not yet clear where the suspect obtained the gun. Police have reached a parent of the suspect, the police chief said.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee wrote on social media, “I’ve been briefed on the incident at Antioch High School and am grateful for law enforcement & first responders who responded quickly. … I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families & the school community.”
The White House said it had been monitoring the shooting.
