Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth‘s broker reportedly sought to invest millions of dollars in major defense contractors during the run-up to the Iran war.
In the weeks leading up to the initial Feb. 28 attack on Iran, Hegseth’s financial broker inquired about a multimillion-dollar investment in BlackRock’s Defense Industrials Active ETF, according to the Financial Times.
The Financial Times cited three people familiar with the incident, who claimed the inquiry arrived on behalf of a “high-profile potential client” and was “flagged internally at BlackRock.”
The fund is designed to help investors “pursue growth opportunities by investing in companies that may benefit from increased government spending on defense and security amid geopolitical fragmentation and economic competition,” per BlackRock’s official website.
Among the holdings of the IDEF are companies that count the Department of Defense among its top customers, according to The Financial Times.
The outlet also found that Hegseth’s investment did not go through because the fund was too new and not yet available for Morgan Stanley’s clients to pursue.
The news comes amid growing scrutiny of highly profitable trades made in prediction and financial markets ahead of major policy decisions by President Donald Trump‘s administration.
On March 23, Trump called Hegseth “the first” to advocate for the Iran war.
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