THE ONLINE PREDICTION market website, Intrade, has ceased “trading activity” according to a notice posted on its site.

Intrade was a platform where spectators could buy and sell shares on the outcome of real world events, including politics, finance, economics, science and entertainment. Their most active market in recent times included wagers on who would succeed the recently resigned Pope Benedict XVI.

The Dublin-based company posted the memo to its site late last night which read they recently discovered “circumstances” which “require immediate further investigation, and may include financial irregularities”.

To comply with Irish law, the directors were said to cease exchange trading on the website immediately, settle all open positions and calculate the settled account value of all member accounts and cease all banking transactions for all existing company accounts.

During the coming weeks, Intrade will investigate the circumstances and “determine the necessary course of action”.

Late last year, the company suspended trading for all US customers following a lawsuit by Commodity Futures Trading Commission after they claimed Intrade was letting Americans bet on the price of commodities which is illegal in the US.