DOJ Probes $2.6B Oil Bets Placed Just Before Trump’s Iran War Announcements: Report

(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The Department of Justice is reportedly investigating a series of high-value oil trades placed just before key announcements relating to the war in Iran by President Donald Trump, probing whether the bets were made with advanced knowledge.

Sources told ABC News that federal investigators, alongside the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are examining at least four trades in which investors collectively wagered more than $2.6 billion that oil prices would fall in the minutes or hours before public statements that sent markets lower, sources told ABC News.

The pattern — first reported by Reuters — was backed up by data from the London Stock Exchange Group obtained by the network, which shows one of the transactions occurred on March 23, when traders placed more than $500 million in bets that oil prices would decline just 15 minutes before Trump announced he would delay threatened attacks on Iran’s power grid.

On April 7, in another trade pointed out by ABC News, traders reportedly bet $960 million on falling oil prices hours before Trump announced a temporary ceasefire. A further trade took place on April 17, when investors wagered $760 million on lower oil prices roughly 20 minutes before Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on social media that the Strait of Hormuz remained open.

A fourth rush of trades worth $430 million was placed on April 21, shortly before Trump announced an extension of the ceasefire.

The Department of Justice and the CFTC have not publicly confirmed the investigation.

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