A viral Reddit post claimed that Joe Biden’s White House pressured Robinhood to halt GameStop trading as Redditors drove up the company’s value and took down two prominent hedge funds.
“Vladimir, yes founder Vladimir, and the C-Suite, received calls from Sequoia Capital and the White House that pressured into closing trading on GME etc. I guarantee you the same took place at E-Trade and the others who closed trading,” the post read.
The user claimed to be a low-level Robinhood employee and said he overhead other employees talking about the alleged pressure campaign.
Not long after, Sequoia Capital denied pressuring Robinhood, Newsweek reported. Conversely, Biden’s White House has yet to address the accusation.
The claims have not been verified and have generated both support and pushback on social media.
“This has all the things QAnon loves 1) anonymous insider, 2) blames Biden, and 3) secret plots to controll [sic] the population,” public scholar Marc-André Argentino tweeted .
“The reports alleging the White House ‘pressured’ RobinHood, etc, to halt trading must be taken seriously,” another Twitter user wrote.
Elsewhere, author James Surowiecki compared the rumor to the Stop the Steal supporters who alleged that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump by Biden and the Democratic Party.
“It’s just as dumb and ill-informed, and just as frustrating to argue with,” he tweeted .
Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev has backed a backlash for deciding to stop sales of GameStop and — in some cases — sell user stocks without their permission. Notably, journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed to Tenev’s recent interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo and suggested that he “strongly implied” that he was guided or instructed by government regulators to halt selling.
This was a good job by @ChrisCuomo .
But there’s a question that lingers. Tenev uses slimy language so it’s hard to pin down, but he strongly implied government regulators were giving them guidance if not instructions to halt selling.
Is that true? Did the US Govt demand this? https://t.co/xH8mMkPv3d
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 29, 2021
According to political scientist Ian Bremmer, Robinhood is required to “hold sufficient collateral to execute the trades,” which he noted in a tweet is unrelated to the specific stocks involved or who is profiting or losing off of the shares.
As The Inquisitr reported, Biden and his newly appointed treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, have come under scrutiny amid the recent controversy surrounding GameStop and Robinhood. Both have extensive ties to Wall Street, and Yellen has taken $810,000 in speaking fees from Citadel — a hedge fund that is the stock-trading platform’s biggest customer.
According to columnist John Nolte, Yellen’s speaking fees are actually payoffs and bribes to ensure that she uses her position to do their bidding.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed that the treasury secretary’s fees are no cause for concern and argued that she earned them fairly.
So the White House officially sees no problem that Janet Yellen received $810,000 from citadel that works closely with Robin Hood as she’s going to be making very important decisions about them!?
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) January 28, 2021
