The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator and publicity/technology adviser, to pay more than $172,000 to settle charges that he used advance access to President Donald Trump’s speeches to profit from “mention markets” on prediction marketplace Kalshi.
According to the CFTC order, Perez opened an account at Kalshi on Dec. 8, 2025, and traded from December 2025 through March 2026. He allegedly read Trump’s prepared remarks roughly an hour before delivery and placed trades on contracts that pay out based on whether specific words or phrases appear in presidential addresses. The scheme generated $107,539.02 in profits. He was ordered to repay that sum and pay an additional $65,000 civil penalty, for total sanctions of about $172,539, and faces a three-year ban on trading at any CFTC-registered entity.
Perez consented to the order without admitting the findings. The CFTC said he received roughly a 40% reduction of the civil penalty after voluntarily sitting for an interview and accepting responsibility, which the agency described as “exemplary cooperation.” The CFTC credited KalshiEX for its assistance, and Kalshi head of enforcement Robert DeNault said on X that the exchange’s surveillance unit caught the trading. “It doesn’t matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences,” DeNault wrote.
This is the CFTC’s second event-contract settlement since late July. On July 31, former congressman George Santos agreed to pay about $35,000 over Kalshi trades on a contract asking who would attend February’s State of the Union address. Both orders carry three-year trading bans and grew out of Kalshi referrals, though Santos was charged for manipulating a contract under his influence, while Perez was charged for trading on insider information.
The enforcement action highlights growing scrutiny of prediction markets. Federal prosecutors in May charged Google engineer Michele Spagnuolo with using internal search data to make about $1.2 million on Polymarket, and the CFTC filed a parallel civil complaint. House Oversight Chairman James Comer opened a probe into insider trading controls at Kalshi and Polymarket, and both platforms tightened controls in March. Separately, the Ninth Circuit ruled against Kalshi in its fight with Nevada gaming regulators, holding that the company had not shown federal commodities law preempts state gambling rules.
