A Pentagon broker tried to heavily invest in large defense companies in the weeks leading up to the American-Israeli attack on Iran, according to the Financial Times on Monday, citing three people familiar with the matter.
Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell stated that the story was “completely false and fabricated” and demanded a retraction.
The FT report mentions that Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February, regarding a multi-million dollar investment in the asset manager’s Defense Industrials Active ETF, just before the United States launched military action against Tehran.
The report does not specify the discretionary power the broker had to make investments on behalf of Hegseth, nor whether Hegseth was aware of the broker’s actions.
“Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about such an investment,” said Parnell.
BlackRock declined to comment on the report, while Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The report on the investment attempt comes as part of a closer examination of transactions made in financial markets and forecasting prior to major political decisions by American President Donald Trump. Some of these decisions have been preceded by timely bets, leading some experts to question whether information had been leaked in advance.
