Ex-White House Teleprompter Operator to Pay $172K Over Kalshi Trump Bets
CFTC settlement finds Gabriel Perez used advance access to Trump's speeches to profit on 39 of 43 Kalshi "mention" contracts.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited by the ON360 newsroom.
A former White House teleprompter operator has agreed to pay roughly $172,000 to settle U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) allegations that he traded on Kalshi’s prediction markets using advance knowledge of President Donald Trump’s prepared remarks.
Gabriel Perez will disgorge $107,539.02 in trading profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty under the settlement, according to a CFTC order. He also accepted a three-year trading ban.
An hour’s head start on 43 contracts
Perez worked as a technical adviser to Trump, operating the president’s teleprompter during public events. That role typically gave him access to prepared remarks about an hour before delivery, the CFTC found.
He opened a Kalshi account on December 8, 2025, and concentrated his activity on sports and Trump “mention” markets, wagers tied to whether specific words or phrases would appear in a speech. Events covered included the State of the Union address, a World Economic Forum appearance, the National Prayer Breakfast and campaign-style stops in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Iowa and Georgia.
Perez told investigators he reviewed the prepared text and bought “Yes” or “No” contracts accordingly. In at least one instance, he adjusted his position after noticing Trump had skipped or altered a line tied to his bet. He profited on 39 of 43 contracts traded.
Cooperation cut the penalty
The CFTC said the information Perez accessed was confidential government material, and that federal ethics rules bar employees from using nonpublic information for private gain. He was placed on administrative leave after the trading became public in July and subsequently left government employment.
Perez received a reduced civil penalty for what the agency called “extraordinary cooperation,” including sitting for an interview almost immediately and handing over documents. The CFTC said that cooperation earned him roughly a 40 per cent reduction, above the 25 per cent generally available under its enforcement policy.
Part of a wider crackdown
Perez joins a lengthening list of prediction-market traders facing CFTC action this year. In July, the agency ordered former U.S. Representative George Santos to pay about $35,000, finding he had manipulated a Kalshi market on whether he would attend the State of the Union.
Two other cases have targeted Polymarket users. In April, the CFTC sued Army servicemember Gannon Ken Van Dyke over more than $404,000 in alleged profits tied to classified information about the operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. In May, it charged Google employee Michele Spagnuolo with using nonpublic search-results data to make roughly $1.2 million.
Reports last week suggested federal authorities are preparing further cases, potentially involving another servicemember and a KPMG employee, which could be filed this fall.
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket remain unavailable to Ontario bettors. Provincial and national regulators have kept event-outcome contracts tied to sports and entertainment separate from licensed gambling products, a distinction Canadian authorities have reaffirmed as U.S. enforcement activity mounts.
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