Claims that investment firms bet on Trump assassination are baseless
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"BlackRock knew that Donald Trump was going to get assassinated before it actually happened," says the narrator in a video posted July 20 on Instagram.
"BlackRock bet $360,000,000 on Trump's assassination and here's how they did it. They shorted a company owned by Trump, ticker symbol $DJT."
The claim also spread on X, where users linked a "put option" on Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), which owns the former president's Truth Social platform, to finance giants BlackRock and Vanguard.
"If Trump died the stock would would (sic) plummet and BlackRock would make Billions," a July 20 post says.
Similar claims circulated on Reddit, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.
The social media posts suggest investment firms such as Austin Private Wealth (APW) used advanced knowledge of the shooting to take "short" positions, buying options to sell shares at a specified price, that would result in a profit in the event of a decline. These options are similar to "short sales," or borrowing shares and then replacing them at a lower cost -- a practice that is generally legal but can violate US regulations depending on the circumstances.
The claims add to a flood of misinformation about the attack at a Trump campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania, during which the Republican presidential nominee's ear was injured. The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was killed by Secret Service snipers after he fatally shot a firefighter.
The shooting prompted several independent reviews (archived here). FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Judiciary Committee during a July 24 hearing that investigators "do not yet have a clear picture" of Crooks's motive.
However, they have determined he acted alone -- and the conspiracy theories swirling online are baseless.
'Filed in error'
While DJT shares have been the target of short sellers since a public offering in early 2024, APW said in a July 17 statement (archived here) that the claims are based on an erroneous filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
That filing shows a put option, which is sometimes used as a "shorting" technique to profit from a price drop, for 12 million DJT shares (archived here). At the time of the filing, that would roughly equate to $360 million (archived here) -- the figure cited in the social media posts.
As an independent investment advisory firm, APW manages funds for a range of clients. But the firm said in its statement that neither it nor any of its clients "holds, or has ever held, a put on DJT in the quantity initially reported."
"The correct holding amount was 12 contracts, or 1,200 shares -- not 12 million shares, as was filed in error," APW said.
APW said the error occurred after a vendor accidentally "increased the number of the shares by a multiple of 10,000 for all options contracts" while submitting a report for the second quarter of 2024. The SEC filing shows the same erroneous amount for companies such as Meta and Metlife.
"We did not catch the error before approving the filing," APW said in its statement.
BlackRock, Vanguard connection
Some posts attempt to connect APW with BlackRock and Vanguard, financial giants that manage trillions of dollars in assets. Both investment firms have previously been the subject of conspiracy theories.
One X user claims BlackRock and Vanguard "are among the largest holders in Austin Private Wealth LLC."
But the Texas firm said in a July 24 email that the claims are incorrect:
"Austin Private Wealth is a firm owned solely by individual partners based in Austin. We invest primarily in index funds and mutual funds managed by about a dozen companies, including BlackRock and Vanguard. We also subscribe to investment models from BlackRock, among other firms, to inform some of our investment strategies."
The assertion that BlackRock and Vanguard own stakes in APW misinterprets SEC filings that show the Texas firm's investments in vehicles such as the BlackRock Flexible Income exchange-traded fund (ETF) (archived here).
An AFP search of BlackRock's holdings in the first quarter of 2024 found no investment in any company starting with "Austin" or "APW" (archived here). Similarly, no investment in the Texas firm appeared in a search of Vanguard holdings (archived here).
A Vanguard spokesperson confirmed the company "has no ownership interest" in APW. They added that any investment by the Texas firm would not be unusual, since Vanguard has some 50 million investors and dozens of ETFs and mutual funds.
"Any investor can buy these funds from any brokerage platform," the spokesperson said. "You wouldn't need to have any relationship with Vanguard to be an owner."
Related claims
Other posts add to the conspiracy theory by claiming the shooter was on a building owned by BlackRock.
However, property records indicate the building belongs to American Glass Research (archived here), a unit of the manufacturer AGR International. The machinery industry firm Indicor, in turn, owns AGR International.
A BlackRock spokesperson confirmed to AFP in a July 23 email that the firm "does not own the building," nor does it have "real estate funds invested in the building."
BlackRock's regulatory holdings confirm it has no investment in any company related to the building.
Some social media users also question the fact that Crooks appeared in a 2022 BlackRock ad.
BlackRock acknowledged Crooks was in a video as a student but told AFP he was not compensated for the appearance.
"In 2022, we ran an ad featuring a teacher from Bethel Park High School, in which several unpaid students briefly appeared in the background, including Thomas Matthew Crooks," the company said.
"We will make all video footage available to the appropriate authorities, and we have removed the video from circulation out of respect for the victims."
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the attempted assassination of Trump here.
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