Highlights
- The CFTC ordered Gabriel Perez, Trump's former teleprompter operator, to pay $172,000 for trading Kalshi "mention market" contracts using advance knowledge of presidential speeches.
- Perez must disgorge $107,539 in profits and pay a $65,000 penalty, reduced 40% for cooperating with investigators.
- He is banned from trading on CFTC-registered platforms for three years.
- He is the second federal-adjacent figure this year to settle a Kalshi-related enforcement case, after former congressman George Santos paid roughly $35,000 in July.
Advance Access to Speeches Became a Trading Edge
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered Gabriel Perez, who operated President Trump's teleprompter since 2016, to pay a total of $172,000 to settle charges that he misused his White House access to trade prediction-market contracts. According to the CFTC's order, Perez read Trump's prepared remarks roughly one hour before they were delivered and then placed trades on Kalshi's "mention markets" — event contracts that pay out based on specific words or phrases a public figure uses during a speech. The trading ran from December 2025 through March 2026, per The Block's reporting on the settlement, which was announced August 29.
The Numbers Behind the Settlement
Under the order, Perez must disgorge $107,539.02 in trading profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty — a figure the CFTC said reflects a roughly 40% discount for his "exemplary cooperation" during the investigation, despite the agency finding he breached a duty of trust and confidentiality owed to the US government. Kalshi separately imposed its own three-year trading ban on Perez's account. The case echoes an earlier one: former congressman George Santos agreed in late July to pay about $35,000 to settle CFTC charges tied to trading a Kalshi contract on State of the Union attendance, and also received a three-year ban. Kalshi's head of enforcement, Robert DeNault, said in a statement that "it doesn't matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences."
Why This Matters for Prediction Markets
Related: Trump Claims 'Biggest Oil Deal in History' With Venezuela
The back-to-back enforcement actions land at a sensitive moment for the prediction-market industry, which has expanded rapidly into political and cultural event contracts and drawn regulatory scrutiny as a result. Two settlements in the same summer involving people with privileged access to information about the events they were trading — a sitting president's speeches, a congressional proceeding — signal that the CFTC is treating information asymmetry on these platforms the same way securities regulators treat insider trading in equities. For an industry that has marketed itself partly on regulatory legitimacy relative to offshore crypto betting markets, consistent enforcement against insiders is a credibility test the CFTC appears willing to keep running.
What to Watch
With two insider-trading-style settlements now on the board in a single summer, the next signal will be whether the CFTC opens further probes into other individuals with privileged access to event outcomes — government staff, campaign workers, or corporate insiders — trading adjacent mention or outcome markets on Kalshi and its competitors.
FAQ
Who is Gabriel Perez?
He is President Trump's former teleprompter operator, who held the role since 2016 and had advance access to prepared presidential remarks.
What did the CFTC order him to pay?
A total of $172,000: $107,539 in disgorged trading profits plus a $65,000 civil penalty, along with a three-year ban from CFTC-registered trading platforms.
What are Kalshi mention markets?
Event contracts that pay out based on whether a public figure says a specific word or phrase during a speech or public appearance.
Is this the first such case?
No — former congressman George Santos settled a similar CFTC case in July 2026 over trading a Kalshi contract tied to State of the Union attendance, paying about $35,000.
