Altcoins News

Story: CFTC Imposes $172,539 Fine on Gabriel Perez for Insider Trading on Kalshi

By Jean-Luc Maracon

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$172,539 and a Three-Year Trading Ban. The penalty is divided into two parts. First, $107,539.

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Kalshi at the Center of a Broader Regulatory Issue. The Perez case comes at a particular time for predictive markets.

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Gabriel Perez faces a hefty fine. $172,539.02, to be precise. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has come down hard on a former White House teleprompter operator who…

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The scheme was simple, perhaps too simple to last. Between December 2025 and February 2026, Perez worked at the White House. His job: manage the teleprompter.

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The penalty is divided into two parts. First, $107,539.02 in restitution—that's the illicit gains he has to return. Then, a civil penalty of $65,000 on top. Total: $172,539.02.

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And the money isn't all. Perez is banned from trading for three years. He also agreed not to break the rules in the future.

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What likely saved Perez from an even harsher penalty was his cooperation during the investigation.

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The Perez case comes at a particular time for predictive markets. Kalshi, Polymarket, and other similar platforms are attracting a growing number of users—people who want to bet…

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The issue Perez embodies isn't really new. Using non-public information to trade—insider trading, in its most classic form—has been an offense for decades in traditional…

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See also: Ninth Circuit Deal Blow to Kalshi’s CFTC Preemption Claim in Nevada Betting Dispute

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Related topic: The Ninth Circuit Deals a Blow to Kalshi's Arguments Against Nevada Regulation

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Too risky. Especially for those with privileged access to sensitive information—officials, institutional employees, political advisors. The Perez case makes this risk very real.

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There's also a Van Dyke case running parallel, still pending. The source doesn't specify the details of this case, but industry observers are watching closely.

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No details on what this will concretely lead to. But the regulatory pressure is real.

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Platforms like Kalshi might find themselves having to review their internal policies—more thorough identity checks, restrictions on certain user profiles, increased monitoring of…

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