The 28-year-old’s alleged embezzlement came to light when Founders Fund considered investing in Polymarket in 2025, according to the report. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan used company funds to pay for private jet flights, his apartment rent and other personal expenses, a Bloomberg report has alleged.
Founders Fund is an American venture capital fund established by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek.
Investor rubbishes report
The investment valued Polymarket at $1.2 billion. Coplan was 22 when he founded Polymarket in June 2020. By 2024, Polymarket had raised about $70 million from investors, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Dragonfly Capital and, of course, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
A spokesperson for Polymarket said the flights were for business purposes and that Coplan “proactively” disclosed the expenses to investors, Bloomberg said. “We’re one of the largest early investors in Polymarket, and this story that Shayne was “caught red-handed” using company money is just a flat out garbage hit piece,” he said. Plus, SHAYNE STARTED the accounting and payback process, no one “found” it.
The Bloomberg report stated that Shayne Coplan repaid the money, thereby securing an investment from Founders Fund. “Shayne disclosed every dollar he spent, which turned out to annualize to about a software engineer’s salary. That’s including the flights, none of which were personal flights. In aggregate, it was nothing that an investor would balk at. He paid it back to the company in full, and then got on a normal salary like everyone else,” he added.
