By Kenneth Williams-
Gabriel Perez used advance knowledge of Donald Trump’s speeches to place trades on a prediction market, US regulator says
A former White House teleprompter operator has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 after using advance knowledge of President Donald Trump’s speeches to place trades on a prediction market. Gabriel Perez must surrender $107,539.02 (£79,452) in profits and pay a further $65,000 (£48,000) civil penalty under a settlement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
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He has also been banned from trading for three years. The CFTC said Perez used information about Trump’s forthcoming speeches, obtained through his work at the White House, to trade on Kalshi, a prediction-market platform where users buy and sell contracts linked to real-world events.
The trades were made between December 2025 and February 2026, according to the regulator.The CFTC said Perez had “misappropriated” non-public information about Trump’s speeches and used it to place trades “in breach of his duty of trust and confidence”.
The information concerned what the president was expected to say during his public addresses.
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Among the contracts involved were so-called “mention markets”, in which traders predict whether a particular word, phrase, country or slogan will be mentioned during a speech.
Unusual betting detected
Kalshi had previously said its analysts noticed unusual betting activity involving mention markets.
The company investigated the trading activity and used account information to identify the trader as a federal employee who worked on White House teleprompters.
Kalshi subsequently reported the activity to the CFTC.
The company has argued that information used by political leaders can have significant financial consequences because presidential remarks can influence currency, oil and stock markets.
Bobby DeNault, Kalshi’s lead lawyer, welcomed the regulator’s action.
“It doesn’t matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences,” he wrote on X.
The CFTC said Perez’s civil penalty was reduced because of his “exemplary cooperation” with the investigation.
The regulator nevertheless ordered him to surrender the profits he made from the trades and imposed the additional $65,000 civil penalty.
The settlement also prevents Perez from trading for three years.
The White House has not commented on the settlement.
Perez had previously been placed on unpaid leave and was not expected to return to his White House position.
White House warned staff
The case has also prompted wider questions about the use of prediction markets by government employees. In July, the White House Management Office sent a letter to administration aides warning them not to place bets on prediction markets, according to earlier reports.
The controversy comes as prediction markets such as Kalshi have expanded into areas including politics, economics and major public events.The Perez case illustrates the particular sensitivity of such markets when a trader has access to information before it becomes public.
In this case, the CFTC concluded that Perez’s access to Trump’s speeches through his White House position gave him confidential information that he used for personal financial gain.
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