Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., attends a press conference with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during the House Democrats’ 2025 Issues Conference at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia on March 13, 2025.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | getty images
Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., is investigating whether the nation’s top financial regulator is investigating several trades made before President Donald Trump provided a major update on the Iran war.
In a letter sent Friday to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig and shared exclusively with CNBC, Liccardo said he wrote to “express concern over recent reporting that indicates that he made large trades on crude oil prices and S&P 500 E-mini futures immediately prior to the President’s announcement of action, or lack thereof, in Iran Had gone.”
“The timing indicates that the bets were placed by people who had prior knowledge of the President’s actions, strongly suggesting illegal trading on insider information, which is a violation of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936, and the Congressional Stop Trading on Knowledge (Stock) Act of 2012,” Liccardo wrote.
A reuters An April 8 report said a big bet on oil was made just hours before the US-Iran ceasefire, resulting in a lucrative payout.
“This activity is the latest in a series of timely, large-volume trades made just before the President announced further actions by the United States in the Iran war,” said Liccardo, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, which oversees securities and exchanges.
Several other trades have prompted investigations amid the Iran war effort. On March 23, a flurry of activity in S&P 500 E-mini futures on CME produced a sharp and distinct surge in volume. A similar trend emerged in oil markets.
The trade took place about 15 minutes before Trump posted on Truth Social that talks had taken place between the US and Iran and that he was postponing expected attacks on civilian infrastructure. After that the market rose and oil futures fell.
US regulators are now reportedly investigating the trades, with the CFTC leading the effort. Liccardo also urged the SEC in the letter to launch an investigation.
Liccardo also took aim at prediction markets, saying, “Surprisingly, prediction markets involving equity trading and large wartime bets placed on equity options at the right time before President Trump’s tariff announcements strongly suggest a pattern of insider corruption.”
Liccardo said a recent White House memo directing officials not to participate in insider trading activity in prediction markets “provides little comfort.”
He wrote, “No one in the federal service needs to be ‘reminded’ of the blatant illegality of personal financial enrichment by the exploitation of confidential information obtained through public service.”
Liccardo asked Atkins whether the SEC had begun investigating the trades, and what tools the SEC had to investigate them. They also sought information on how regulators can crack down on insider trading in the prediction markets and what agencies are doing to ensure that government employees do not profit from insider information.