Polymarket pulled a contract that let users bet on whether any of the seven men in the Cornell Chi Phi lawsuit would face a felony sex-crime charge.

A wager on whether prosecutors will file charges is not evidence of anything. The only people who decide that question are Attorney General Letitia James, now the special prosecutor, and, if she presents a case, a grand jury. The outlets also did not describe the case the same way. NBC News' headline said the men were "accused of rape." The AP text that CBS and ABC carried said they were accused of "sexually assaulting or exploiting" the student. AP also reported a separate Polymarket market on whether Cornell president Michael Kotlikoff would be out by Oct. 31 was still open Tuesday.

Polymarket removed a contract from its prediction-market platform that let users wager on whether any of the seven former Chi Phi fraternity members named in a Cornell University sexual-assault lawsuit will be charged with a felony sex crime, the Associated Press reported Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. CBS News, NBC News and ABC News carried the AP account, and CBS put it on its U.S. page Wednesday morning. AP reported the contract had been available since Sept. 30, was set to close Jan. 31, and had more than $450,000 in volume before it was taken down. It ran on Polymarket's international platform, not the company's U.S. exchange, which AP said is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and barred from trading tied to "activity that is unlawful under Federal or State law." AP credited Front Office Sports with first reporting the contract.

A Polymarket spokesperson told AP the market "addressed whether the government would take action" and that the company had "heard them loud and clear, and removed the market." Much of the criticism, AP reported, was aimed at the company's celebrity promoters. AP said LeBron James has an endorsement deal with Polymarket and recently appeared in a commercial with Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Sue Bird and others. A spokesman for director Spike Lee, who was also in the ad, told AP he had no comment. CBS reported that an online petition from the advocacy group UltraViolet singled out James, Manning, actress Alexandra Daddario and model Emily Ratajkowski and asked endorsers to cut ties with the company. AP said messages left with several of them had not been answered when it published. AP also listed Polymarket partnerships with the NHL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the UFC and the ATP Tour.

The underlying case has not produced a criminal charge. A former student identified in court papers only as Jane Doe sued Cornell, seven former Chi Phi members, the fraternity and her sorority in September, alleging she was sexually assaulted in October 2024 and that the university mishandled her complaint. NBC News has reported that all seven men deny her allegations, saying either that what happened was consensual or that they were not involved. Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Letitia James special prosecutor on Oct. 1, and two of the men, Gillio Lopes and Winston Lee, have filed court papers seeking to remove her, NBC reported. James' office has said it will review "nothing but the facts, the evidence, and the law." A betting line on that review was taken down this week. The review itself is still open. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.