The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced on Friday that former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez will pay $172,539 after using advance access to President Trump's speeches for prediction market trades. According to the CFTC, Perez made more than $107,500 in trading profits during the period between December 2025 and February 2026. The settlement requires Perez to return the full $107,539.02 in profits, pay a $65,000 civil monetary penalty, and serve a three-year trading ban from CFTC-regulated activities. The White House had suspended Perez last month after prediction market platform Kalshi flagged suspicious trades linked to him and reported them to federal regulators. Perez, who served as a technical assistant to the president and operated Trump's teleprompter since 2016, no longer works for the federal government according to the settlement reporting.
Perez's position as a White House teleprompter operator provided him with advance knowledge of Trump speeches before they were delivered publicly, giving him access to information directly connected to the contracts he was trading. As reported by the CFTC, Perez traded presidential mention market contracts - event contracts whose outcomes depend on whether particular words or phrases are used during presidential speeches. The regulator found that Perez used this information in breach of his duty of trust and confidence, generating the substantial trading profits during the restricted period. The case highlights how Perez's role gave him sight of speech drafts before delivery, which is precisely the information those contracts were designed to test. Mention markets allow users to wager on whether a person will say a particular word or phrase during a speech or other event, with markets including references to countries, political issues or campaign-related phrases.
The $65,000 penalty was substantially reduced under the CFTC's new cooperation policy due to what the regulator described as Perez's 'exemplary cooperation' during the investigation. According to the CFTC, Perez is no longer employed by the federal government after previously being placed on unpaid leave following scrutiny of his trading activity. The agency also credited KalshiEX with assisting its investigation, demonstrating cooperation between regulators and prediction market platforms in insider trading cases. Kalshi's head of enforcement and legal counsel Robert DeNault praised the enforcement action, stating on social media that "it doesn't matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences." The company noted that the words of political leaders such as presidents and central-bank chairs move billions of dollars across currency, oil and equity markets, which is what gives advance knowledge of a script its value and why insider trading on it threatens the integrity of the market itself.
This case follows other significant insider trading investigations involving prediction markets, including trades linked to Polymarket and Kalshi. As reported by crypto.news, another federal case centers on U.S. Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who has been accused of using classified military information to trade Venezuela-related contracts on Polymarket, generating approximately $409,881 in profits. Additionally, Kalshi faced a separate insider-trading episode involving an editor affiliated with YouTube creator MrBeast, resulting in a $20,397.58 penalty and a two-year suspension. In February 2026, Kalshi announced it had closed two insider-trading investigations of its own, fining an employee of the YouTube star MrBeast £15,000 ($20,398) and imposing a two-year suspension over bets tied to streaming milestones, and handing a five-year ban and smaller penalty to a long-shot candidate for California governor who had breached its rules for politicians. In April, a U.S. Army soldier was charged with allegedly using his knowledge of the classified operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket, allegedly earning more than $400,000 from the trades.
The enforcement action highlights ongoing regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets, with the CFTC using emergency authority in August to direct KalshiEX to continue normal operations after New York sought restrictions against the exchange. According to the CFTC, the classification of presidential mention contracts as event contracts under federal commodities law places such activities within the commission's enforcement framework. The case also involves ongoing legal disputes over the scope of federal authority over prediction markets, with New York, Nevada and other states challenging contracts offered through federally regulated prediction markets, particularly products tied to sports. Kalshi and Polymarket have introduced additional restrictions this year aimed at preventing insider trading, with Kalshi barring politicians, athletes and certain other groups from participating in some markets, while Polymarket has clarified its rules prohibiting trades based on confidential information. The episode has already changed practice inside the building, with the White House Management Office sending a letter to aides in July reminding them of their obligations around non-public information, a direct response to the discovery that a staffer had been converting the president's draft remarks into a personal revenue stream.
