The online betting site Intrade announced late on Sunday that it had halted trading and frozen customer accounts after the company said it had discovered potential financial irregularities.
The firm, which is based in Dublin and allows consumers to bet on world events like the pending selection of a new Catholic pope, already has faced scrutiny from regulators.
In November, Intrade shut its Web site to United States residents when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil complaint accusing the Irish company of offering the contracts outside traditional exchanges and without regulatory approval.
A spokesman for the Central Bank of Irelnd, which polices the country’s financial industry, said local regulators were not involved in the most recent problems confronting Intrade because the company was not regulated by the country’s central bank.
In its latest step, Intrade said it would close all outstanding bets after the company had discovered potential “financial irregularities†under Irish law. The company said it also had ceased trading, settled all outstanding customer contracts and stopped users’ banking transactions from the Web site.
“We will investigate these circumstances further and determine the necessary course of action,†Intrade said in a brief statement.
A representative for the company was not immediately available for comment.
Founded in 1999 by John Delaney, an Irish businessman who died in 2011 after trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest, Intrade had become a widely popular venue where customers could bet on everything from the! potential outcome of the United States presidential election to whether Israel would carry out an airstrike against Iran.
The business model, however, had angered some regulators and government officials because many American states prohibit gambling on elections.
The C.F.T.C. also said last year in its filing against the company that Intrade and an affiliate company had filed false annual forms with the agency, which had misled authorities over which investors could enter into contracts on the firm’s Web site.
“We are committed to reporting faithfully the status of things as they are clarified and hope you will bear with us,†Intrade said in a statement late on Sunday.
