assistant secretary of war for public affairs Sean Parnell Amid reports that the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s agent Peter Heggs Attempts to make significant investments in major defense companies in the weeks leading up to US-Israeli attacks Iran. Parnell dismissed the claim as disinformation and shared a Financial Times report citing three people familiar with the matter.
“This allegation is completely false and fabricated. Neither Minister Heggs nor any of his representatives have engaged with BlackRock regarding any such investment. This is yet another baseless and dishonest slander designed to mislead the public,” Parnell wrote on X.
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“We demand an immediate withdrawal,” he added. “Secretary Hegseth and the Department of the Army remain steadfast in their commitment to the highest ethical standards and strict compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
What does the report claim?
The Financial Times reported that Morgan Stanley’s Hegseth broker contacted BlackRock back in February to discuss a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager’s defense industry active ETF. According to the outlet, this occurred shortly before the United States launched military action against Tehran.
The outlet further claimed that investments discussed by Hegseth’s agent did not ultimately proceed. The fund was reportedly launched last May and is not yet available for purchase by Morgan Stanley clients.
However, the report did not discuss how much discretion the broker had in making investments on Hegseth’s behalf. It also doesn’t say whether Hegseth knew what the agent was doing.
The FT report comes amid wider scrutiny of trading in finance and prediction markets ahead of Donald Trump’s policy decisions. Some of these decisions precede well-timed bets. That prompted some experts to question whether the information was somehow leaked ahead of time, Reuters reported.
