A broker for U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to make a large investment in major defense companies in the lead-up to the Iran war, according to the Financial Times. The Pentagon has dismissed the report.
The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Hegseth’s broker at banking giant Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in its iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF.
The ETF, which has about $3.1 billion in assets, counts companies such as RTX — formerly known as Raytheon — Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, among its largest holdings, BlackRock data showed.
It appears this investment didn’t go through because at time the fund wasn’t available for Morgan Stanley clients. So far, the trade wouldn’t have been profitable as the Defense Industrials Active ETF has lost over 12% during the past month.
