A former White House teleprompter operator has been hit with over $172,000 in penalties and restitution after being caught exploiting confidential access to then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned speech content to place illegal insider bets on a public prediction market, U.S. financial regulators have confirmed.
The case centers on Gabriel Perez, who held a position as a White House teleprompter operator between late 2025 and early 2026. Over that three-month window, Perez used his advance knowledge of exactly what terms and topics the president would include in public addresses to place wagers on Kalshi, a popular prediction trading platform that allows users to bet on the outcome of real-world events.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal regulator that oversees commodity and prediction markets, announced a settlement with Perez on Friday. Under the terms of the agreement, Perez is required to surrender all $107,539 in illicit profits he earned from the scheme, plus pay an additional $65,000 civil penalty. Regulators noted the penalty was reduced from its original proposed amount because Perez offered “exemplary cooperation” throughout the CFTC’s investigation. Beyond financial penalties, Perez also received a three-year permanent ban from all trading activity overseen by the CFTC.
Internal records show the scheme was first uncovered by Kalshi’s own compliance team back in March 2026. Analysts at the platform flagged unusual, concentrated betting activity on so-called “mention markets” — contracts that pay out if a public figure uses a specific pre-named term in a public address, ranging from country names to campaign slogans. After cross-referencing account data, Kalshi investigators confirmed the account holder was a federal employee working as a White House teleprompter, and immediately reported the suspicious activity to the CFTC.
Kalshi’s lead counsel Bobby DeNault publicly praised the regulator’s ruling in a post on X following the settlement announcement. “It doesn’t matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences,” DeNault wrote.
In a July 2026 statement ahead of the settlement, Kalshi had already highlighted the broader systemic risk posed by this type of insider trading, noting that planned remarks from senior U.S. leaders like the president and Federal Reserve chair routinely move global foreign exchange markets, oil futures, and stock markets by billions of dollars. The company emphasized that policing insider activity is critical to maintaining market integrity.
Back in July, then-White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Perez had been placed on unpaid leave and would not be allowed to return to his role at the White House. The White House has not issued any additional comment on the final settlement ruling. Shortly after Perez’s activity was uncovered, the White House Management Office issued a formal advisory to all White House aides reminding staff that betting on political prediction markets violates federal ethics rules and is prohibited for executive branch employees, administration officials confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. media partner.
No criminal charges have been announced against Perez to date, and the settlement resolves the civil case brought by the CFTC.