“Intrade, an online service that lets people bet with one another on events such as elections and the weather, ceased trading activity, saying it is investigating possible financial irregularities.
The firm, owned by Dublin-based Trade Exchange Network Ltd., will not make payments to customers from their online accounts while the investigation is in progress, it said in a statement on its website. The service provider has closed and settled all open contracts at fair market value as at the end of March 10, it said.
“During the upcoming weeks, we will investigate these circumstances further and determine the necessary course of action,” Intrade said in the statement. The company’s auditors last month expressed concern over payments to the accounts of the firm’s late founder, John Delaney.
Intrade allowed customers to bet with one another on binary outcomes of future events such as the possibility of Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana becoming the next Pope. Just as stock exchanges find the price of shares, the so-called prediction market found the probability of an event happening, according to Intrade’s website. The marketplace accurately predicted the results of the U.S. presidential elections in 2008 and 2012 and was used by central banks and Wall Street firms, it said.
The company’s statement didn’t give details of any irregularities and said it took the actions in accordance with Irish law. Carl Wolfenden, Intrades’s operations manager, declined to comment when contacted by telephone today. A spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment…..”
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