Robinhood under fire after artificially halting stock trading
Barstool Sports CEO David Portnoy charges potential 'criminal' behavior on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'
Barstool Sports founder and CEO David Portnoy, who became known for day trading after the coronavirus pandemic halted sporting events, accused the heads of trading app Robinhood of criminal behavior Thursday after it prevented users from buying GameStop stock in an apparent assist to troubled hedge funds.
"I've been trading heavily since quarantine started and I was shocked by this," Portnoy told "Tucker Carlson Tonight". "I personally did invest in AMC and Nokia. Those are two of the stocks that the Reddit guys and the Wall Street Bets guys were pushing. I believed in the power of the Internet."
"When I saw what Robinhood was doing -- ironically Robin Hood [the app's eponym] took from the rich and gave to the poor even though they do the exact opposite -- I was stunned," Portnoy added. "I think it's criminal. I think there has to be an investigation. I think people have to go to jail."
Portnoy noted that antiestablishment figures on the far right and far left have found common ground in condemning Robin Hood and the hedge funders seeking to ice out retail investors.
NEW YORK AG REVIEWING ROBINHOOD AFTER PLATFORM RESTRICTS TRADING OF CERTAIN SECURITIES
"Like, in 20 years of me doing Barstool, it's the most shocked I've been ... When you have AOC and Donald Trump Jr. both on the same side of an issue, you know something is dramatically wrong," he said.
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Earlier in the program, host Tucker Carlson said Robinhood bills itself as a progressive platform for day traders to get a piece of an otherwise elite market, while also supporting causes like the Black Lives Matter movement.
However, he and Portnoy noted that Robinhood makes its money not off retail investors, but by selling data gleaned from the retail investors' behavior to the hedge funds that they appear to hold in contempt.