Ex-SEC Official Slams Invoice Ackman’s ‘Very Unlawful’ Proposal Urging NYC Mayor Adams To Wager On Cuomo’s Polymarket Election Odds

Former SEC chief of workers Amanda Fischer on Sunday blasted billionaire hedge fund supervisor Invoice Ackman‘s suggestion to NYC Mayor Eric Adams on a Polymarket betting deal, calling it “very unlawful.”

In an X submit, Ackman highlighted the NYC Mayoral Election odds on Polymarket, which gave Adams just one% probability of profitable, in comparison with 15% for Andrew Cuomo and 80% for Zohran Mamdani.

The Pershing Sq. Capital Administration CEO steered that Adams withdraw from the race to keep away from risking his fame and do “what’s finest for NYC.”

“The specialists I belief predict the percentages shift to roughly 50/50 in a one-on-one Cuomo/Mandami election. If the sector narrows quickly, the percentages get even higher for Cuomo,” mentioned Ackman, a fierce critic of Mamdani’s insurance policies.

Ackman went a step additional and suggested Adams to position a big guess on Andrew Cuomo’s possibilities of profitable the election, then withdraw and money in his guess as soon as Cuomo’s odds rise. He added that he had not positioned any bets on the result.

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Whereas Ackman mentioned the technique didn’t represent insider buying and selling, Fischer was fast to reply.

“Commodity Trade Act Part 6(c)(1) does truly prohibit the misuse of fabric nonpublic data in by-product markets,” she mentioned.

In keeping with Fisher, Ackman’s proposal is “very unlawful” as a result of Polymarket, the platform the place the guess could be positioned, has declared itself a “futures change.”

Rob Schwartz, former Normal Counsel of the CFTC, agreed with Fisher’s arguments.

Polymarket didn’t instantly return Benzinga’s request for touch upon Fischer’s observations.

Polymarket, a decentralized prediction platform, just lately obtained approval from the CFTC to function within the U.S. The company mentioned it took a “no-action place” on swap knowledge reporting and recordkeeping laws for occasion contracts in response to a request from QCEX, a licensed derivatives change that Polymarket acquired in July.