A broker for US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

Hegseth's broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February, about making a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager's Defence Industrials Active ETF, shortly before the ⁠US launched military action against Tehran, the report added.

According to the ⁠FT report, the investment discussed by Hegseth’s broker did not ultimately go ahead as the fund, which launched in May last year, was not yet available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy.

The FT report did not say how much discretion the broker had to make investments on Hegseth's behalf, or whether Hegseth knew what the broker was doing.

The Pentagon on ⁠Monday refuted the report, which it said was incorrect and demanded a retraction.

"This allegation is entirely false and fabricated," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on X.

The report on the alleged investment attempt comes amid a wider scrutiny of trades made in financial and prediction markets ahead of US President Donald Trump's major policy decisions.

Some of these decisions have been preceded by well-timed bets, leading some experts to raise questions about whether information had somehow leaked ahead of time.(Reuters)



Edited by Cecil Wong