{"id":5761,"date":"2026-03-31T03:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/pentagon-denies-hegseths-broker-sought-defence-investment-before-iran-war\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:37:00","slug":"pentagon-denies-hegseths-broker-sought-defence-investment-before-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/pentagon-denies-hegseths-broker-sought-defence-investment-before-iran-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon denies Hegseth\u2019s broker sought defence investment before Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>US Department of Defense demands retraction of report alleging broker sought multimillion-dollar investment for Hegseth.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The United States Department of Defense has demanded the retraction of a newspaper report alleging that a broker for defence chief Pete Hegseth attempted to make a large investment in weapons companies in the run-up to the war on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell demanded the \u201cimmediate\u201d retraction on Monday after The Financial Times reported that a wealth manager for the defence secretary contacted BlackRock about making a multimillion-dollar investment in a defence-related fund in the weeks leading up to the war.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/30\/irans-foreign-ministry-rejects-us-ceasefire-demands\">Iran\u2019s foreign ministry rejects US ceasefire demands<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/30\/us-raises-concern-over-israels-closure-of-jerusalem-holy-sites\">US raises concern over Israel\u2019s closure of Jerusalem holy sites<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/31\/al-jazeeras-full-interview-with-marco-rubio-on-us-war-on-iran\">Watch: Full interview with Marco Rubio on the US war against Iran<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/31\/at-least-70-killed-30-wounded-in-haiti-gang-attack-rights-group-says\">At least 70 killed, 30 wounded in Haiti gang attack, rights group says<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Hegseth\u2019s broker at Morgan Stanley ultimately did not go ahead with the investment in the exchange-traded fund, whose holdings include Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, because it was not yet available for purchase at the time, The Financial Times reported, citing three unnamed sources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis allegation is entirely false and fabricated. Neither Secretary Hegseth nor any of his representatives approached BlackRock about any such investment,\u201d Parnell said in a post on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is yet another baseless, dishonest smear designed to mislead the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth and his department \u201cremain unwavering in their commitment to the highest standards of ethics and strict adherence to all applicable laws and regulations,\u201d Parnell said.<\/p>\n<p>Al Jazeera could not independently confirm the Financial Times report.<\/p>\n<p>The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of usual business hours.<\/p>\n<p>The Financial Times\u00a0and\u00a0Morgan\u00a0Stanley\u00a0also\u00a0did not\u00a0immediately\u00a0respond to\u00a0inquiries.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>The report comes amid scrutiny of well-timed trades in financial and prediction markets that have fuelled speculation that figures with insider knowledge may be profiting off of US President Donald Trump\u2019s war plans.<\/p>\n<p>While The Financial Times reported that the attempted investment by Hesgeth\u2019s broker did not go ahead, the defence chief would not have made money on such a purchase in the month since the war began.<\/p>\n<p>While the iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF has risen more than 25 percent over the past year, it has fallen nearly 13 percent since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Department of Defense demands retraction of report alleging broker sought multimillion-dollar investment for Hegseth. The United States Department of Defense has demanded the retraction of a newspaper report alleging that a broker for defence chief Pete Hegseth attempted to make a large investment in weapons companies in the run-up to the war on Iran. &#8230; <a title=\"Pentagon denies Hegseth\u2019s broker sought defence investment before Iran war\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/pentagon-denies-hegseths-broker-sought-defence-investment-before-iran-war\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Pentagon denies Hegseth\u2019s broker sought defence investment before Iran war\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}