U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York, during an interview in New York, Jan. 28, 2025.
Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., on Wednesday called for a federal probe into suspicious trading activity in oil and equity futures markets just before President Donald Trump’s announcement of a five-day delay in attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure in March.
In a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig first obtained by CNBC, Torres cites reports on a series of irregular and well-timed trades in the minutes ahead of Trump calling a pause on hostilities.
“What kind of trader would make a massive trade at 6:49 a.m., 15 minutes before a market-moving presidential announcement with billions of dollars at stake and without a hedge?” Torres said in an interview Wednesday. “The only plausible answer to that question is an insider trader. Any other alternative is a statistical impossibility.”
More than $500 million in crude oil futures trades were made in the roughly 15 minutes before Trump announced the halt in strikes via Truth Social, Reuters reported last month. The New Yorker reported that in the immediate lead-up to Trump’s announcement, there was an abnormal surge in futures trading volume predicting a decline in oil prices and a rebound in equity markets.
Torres in his letter said the “occurrence may constitute one of the largest instances of insider trading in history” and called on the SEC to open a formal investigation and, in consultation with the CFTC, obtain comprehensive trading records.
A spokesperson for the SEC on Wednesday declined to comment. The CFTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The SEC tapped David Woodcock, a Gibson Dunn lawyer and former agency official, to be its next enforcement director, Reuters reported Wednesday.
“I have a lack of confidence in our market regulators,” Torres said in the interview. “But we have no choice but to agitate for accountability. We cannot allow the SEC and the CFTC to turn a blind eye to what may be the largest case of insider trading in history.”
This is the second time in several months that Torres — a member of the House Financial Services Committee — has raised the issue of potential insider trading around Trump administration actions.
Torres introduced legislation in January after an account on the prediction market platform Polymarket placed a well-timed bet in the hours leading up to the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, earning a $400,000 payout.
The legislation would bar federal elected officials, congressional staff, political appointees and executive branch officials from buying or selling event contracts based on government policy, action or political outcomes if they have material nonpublic information. It has 42 Democratic cosponsors but is unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled House.
Congressional Democrats in recent months have repeatedly raised concerns about the appearance of insider trading within the Trump administration, particularly on prediction markets. A group of House Democrats on Monday sent a letter to Selig questioning the CFTC’s role in regulating event bets placed on offshore prediction markets such as Polymarket.
“Recent high-profile instances of alleged insider trading on prediction market platforms relating to U.S. government actions — including the military’s intervention in Venezuela and our recent attack on Iran — have fueled concern that the CFTC does not have adequate control over these fast-growing markets,” wrote the group, led by Reps. Seth Moulton and Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrats.
