Investment bank broker Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about an investment in the Defense Industrials Active fund, according to the Financial Times. The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, denied the reports.
A few weeks before the American-Israeli attack, the broker of the American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, would have tried to make an investment in large groups in the defense sector, according to information fromFinancial Times Citing three sources close to the matter. Some see this attempt as a possible case of insider trading.
Pete Hegseth’s broker at investment bank Morgan Stanley reportedly contacted BlackRock in February about a multimillion-dollar investment. This one was about the ETF, «Defense Industrials Active», a fund which brings together the main military industrial stocks.
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“These allegations are completely falseâ€
However, the transaction did not go through due to technical constraints linked to compliance within the bank. For his part, the chief spokesperson of the Pentagon, Sean Parnell, strongly denied these allegations on the X network, calling them“entirely false and invented”and demanded a denial from the British daily. He added: “Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives have approached BlackRock for such an investment.”. At this stage, the White House has not released any official statement on this financial aspect. The company BlackRock, concerned by this information, refused to comment. Furthermore, the article does not specify to what extent the broker had leeway to invest in the name of Pete Hegseth, nor if the latter was informed of these steps.
More broadly, this revelation is part of a climate of increased vigilance around financial markets and prediction platforms, in the run-up to major political decisions by the American administration. Several episodes have already shown particularly well-timed bets before certain announcements, which fuels questions from experts on possible leaks of information upstream. Indeed, a few days before the conflict, millions of dollars had been bet on attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran. The bet “US to strike Iran by…� even became one of the largest in the history of Polymarket, with $529 million committed, before being closed after the first strikes.
