White House warns staff against insider trading after $500M oil futures trades

The White House circulated an internal warning on March 24 reminding staff not to use confidential government information to trade in futures or options markets. The message followed a series of large oil futures transactions that took place shortly before a presidential announcement on March 23.

Exchange records show roughly $500 million of Brent and West Texas Intermediate futures were bought in a one-minute burst just minutes before the president announced a five-day delay in planned strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure. Oil prices fell about 15 percent after the policy shift.

The internal note, distributed the day after the trades, reiterated prohibitions on using privileged information for trading in commodity, futures or options markets. The White House has not made the internal message public.

Federal law bars trading on nonpublic government information. An amendment to the Commodity Exchange Act, incorporated into the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act and enacted April 4, 2012, prohibits federal officials, members of Congress, executive staff and judges from using material nonpublic information obtained through their positions to trade in commodity, futures or options markets.

Members of Congress have introduced legislation aimed at restricting prediction-market and event-contract trading by officials. On March 25 Representatives Adrian Smith and Nikki Budzinski introduced the PREDICT Act to ban officials from betting on prediction markets. Two days later lawmakers including Todd Young, Elissa Slotkin, John Curtis and Adam Schiff unveiled the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026. Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the End Prediction Market Corruption Act, which would bar event-contract trading by officials who possess material nonpublic information.

Separately, traders on public prediction platforms placed bets on whether and when the United States would strike Iran. Some participants realized roughly $1 million in gains from wagers tied to the timing of U.S. military action.

The episode has prompted lawmakers to press for clearer rules and led to proposals targeting trading tied to political and national security events. Investigations and reviews of trading activity around the March 23 announcement are under way by relevant authorities.