A Polymarket bettor who says he correctly predicted President Trump would say “Khamenei” back in March is suing the prediction market giant for $170,000 in damages after the site claimed Trump never said the word.
A few weeks after the war with Iran began on Feb. 28, Polymarket asked bettors a simple yes or no question: would Trump say the words “Khamenei” or “Ayatollah” during the week of March 15? The bet was part of Polymarket’s recurring series, “What will Trump say this week?”
Jesús Manuel Gonzalez Hernandez claims he bought 170,000 “yes” shares for $300. His payout, had he placed a winning bet, would have been a whopping $170,000.
The suit alleges that while talking to reporters aboard Air Force One that week, Trump said “Khamenei” twice. Gonzalez Hernandez’s lawyers point to White House transcripts of the exchange and video of the president speaking as proof.
“They showed about 250,000 people in the square, saying how much they love Khamenei,” Trump appears to say to reporters in the video.
But Polymarket concluded that the president never said the word, resolved the market “no” and Gonzalez Hernandez was not paid out.
According to the suit, Polymarket defended its position by claiming Trump had mispronounced the name and that he was referring to Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s leader who died in 1989.
But Gonzalez Hernandez’s lawyers argue the rules of the bet did not specify that Trump’s pronunciation be exact, or that the president had to be speaking about Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
They also called Polymarket’s claim that Trump was speaking about Khomeini implausible.
“Khomeini had been dead for nearly 37 years,” the suit says. “The President was talking about a live war with a living adversary. To hear a reference to a man dead since 1989, one has to be looking for a reason not to pay.”
Lawyers allege that Polymarket’s “no” judgement was due to either failed technology or that it was overridden by the operator.
“Our client’s case is about being treated unfairly by a multi-billion dollar company. He trusted Polymarket, played by its written rules, and was wronged,” Max Burwick, Gonzalez Hernandez’s lawyer, said in a statement to The Post.
Polymarket declined to comment on the lawsuit. CEO Shayne Coplan and CMO Matthew Modabber were also named in the lawsuit but could not be reached for comment.
