Two US senators have called for a federal probe into suspicious oil trading activity that took place shortly before major announcements by US President Donald Trump on the Iran conflict, raising concerns about potential insider trading.On Friday (local time), Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island urged the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to look into unusual activity in oil futures trading on March 23 and April 7. Their demand comes on top of already growing pressure on regulators amid concerns that some traders may have acted on non-public information linked to the war.In a letter to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, the lawmakers flagged a recurring pattern of well-timed trades preceding key policy announcements. “This pattern raises serious questions about whether there has been recurring misappropriation of material nonpublic government information and about the extent to which individuals inside or outside the government have acted on such information,” Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, wrote.The concerns came to light from activity recorded on March 23, when oil futures trading surged sharply in the minutes before Trump posted on Truth Social about talks with Iran aimed at de-escalating the conflict. According to the senators, there was no public information ahead of the announcement to explain the sudden movement in prices. The post, made shortly after, led to a rise in stock market indices and a drop in crude prices.Reports indicated that more than $500 million in crude oil futures were traded in a brief window of around 15 minutes before that announcement, pointing to what lawmakers see as potentially suspicious positioning by traders. “The same pattern appears to have recurred on April 7, 2026. In the hours before President Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran—an announcement that sent oil prices down approximately 15%—traders placed an approximately $950 million bet on oil prices falling,” the further highlighted.Warren and Whitehouse said that the pattern is worrying, raising questions about whether confidential government information was repeatedly misused, and who might have acted on it, both inside and outside the government.“This pattern raises serious questions about whether there has been recurring misappropriation of material nonpublic government information and about the extent to which individuals inside or outside the government have acted on such information,” Warren and Whitehouse added, requesting written responses by April 30, 2026. The issue also drew attention beyond the Senate. Earlier on Wednesday, representative Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York, sent a separate letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Selig, calling for a federal insider trading investigation.“What kind of trader would make a massive trade at 6:49 am, 15 minutes before a market-moving presidential announcement with billions of dollars at stake and without a hedge?” Torres said in an interview with CNBC. “The only plausible answer to that question is an insider trader,” he added. “Any other alternative is a statistical impossibility.”The issue has also raised wider concerns about trading linked to global events as similar well-timed bets were spotted on platforms like Polymarket around the Iran conflict and even the earlier removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
