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08/30/2026

White House Teleprompter Operator Fined $172K for Insider Trading on Kalshi

What happened: Gabriel Perez, a longtime teleprompter operator for Donald Trump, was ordered by the CFTC to pay $172,539.

White House Teleprompter Operator Fined $172K for Insider Trading on Kalshi

What happened: Gabriel Perez, a longtime teleprompter operator for Donald Trump, was ordered by the CFTC to pay $172,539.02 after trading on Kalshi's "mention markets" using privileged access to presidential speech drafts. Perez placed event contract bets between December 2025 and March 2026, profiting over $100,000 by predicting the specific words and phrases Trump would use. Kalshi's internal surveillance flagged the suspicious activity, leading to a CFTC investigation and a three-year trading ban for Perez. This marks the second insider trading case involving a federal employee and event contracts in four weeks.

Why it matters: The case highlights the unique risks of prediction markets tied to government communications, raising questions about the potential for insider abuse. Kalshi's detection and cooperation are being praised, but the incident underscores the challenge of policing information asymmetries in rapidly growing event-based trading venues. The CFTC's enforcement actions signal increased regulatory scrutiny as prediction markets expand.

Source: The Block