According to a newspaper report, a stockbroker wants to invest millions in an arms ETF before the attack on Iran - on behalf of the US Secretary of Defense.
The deal fell through, but it would not be the first financial transaction at a conspicuous time.
A broker for US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth tried to make a large investment in major arms companies in the weeks before the US and Israel attacked Iran. This was reported by the Financial Times, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The Pentagon spokesperson immediately denied the claim đ
Hegseth's broker at the investment bank Morgan Stanley $MS (-1,47%) had contacted the asset manager Blackrock $BLK (+2,83%) in February to make a multi-million dollar investment in the asset manager's Defense Industrials Active ETF, the sources told the newspaper.
The Pentagon spokesman wrote at X: "This allegation is completely false and fabricated. Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives have approached Blackrock about such an investment." The two companies declined to comment.
According to the report, the planned investment did not materialize because the fund is not yet available to Morgan Stanley clients. It is not known whether a similar investment has been made in another fund.
Such an investment would not be the first conspicuous financial transaction shortly before momentous decisions by the US government.
Conspicuously well-placed bets in the run-up to surprising political decisions by US President Donald Trump have put experts on notice. The extremely precise timing has raised suspicions among experts that traders may have had secret prior knowledge. Unknown players may have earned millions.
The news agency Reuters has identified at least four cases in which traders made unusually large and precisely timed bets on the financial markets shortly before Trump's surprising announcements. These announcements - for example on tariffs, Venezuela or Iran - triggered significant price movements from which the traders in question profited greatly.
ăDelayed Iran attack (March 23, 2026)ă
Unknown traders placed bets worth 500 million dollars on falling oil prices within a single minute. Shortly afterwards, Trump announced a five-day postponement of planned attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure. The price of oil plummeted by 15 percent as a result.
ăKilling of Khamenei (February 28, 2026)ă
Six accounts made a total profit of 1.2 million dollars by betting on the killing of Iranian revolutionary leader and spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to analysis company Bubblemaps, these accounts were filled with money just a few hours before the attacks.
ăFixing Maduro (January 3, 2026)ă
An anonymous user made a profit of around 410,000 dollars with a bet of only around 34,000 dollars. He had bet on the highly unlikely event that Venezuelan President NicolĂĄs Maduro would be arrested by US special forces in January.
ăDuties suspended (April 9, 2025)ă
A few minutes before Trump's announcement to suspend tariffs, millions were bet with options on a recovery of the stock market. After Trump announced the tariff pause, share prices shot up. An investment of 2.14 million dollars was worth around 21.4 million dollars on paper after the price jump.
According to Andrew Verstein, an insider trading expert at the University of California Law School in Los Angeles, the trades look "deeply suspicious". The patterns identified are "what you would expect if there was trading based on insider information by government officials and their friends," Verstein said.
