Finance News

Story: Former White House Teleprompter Operator Fined $172K for Insider Prediction Trades

By Jean-Luc Maracon

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How the Trades Actually Worked. Between December 2025 and February 2026, Perez placed bets on KalshiEX, the regulated prediction…

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Kalshi's Role and the New Safeguards. KalshiEX didn't just sit on the sidelines here. The exchange's surveillance team flagged the…

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What the CFTC Said About Oversight. The agency put out an advisory in February that's worth flagging here.

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A former White House teleprompter operator got caught playing the prediction markets with information nobody else had.

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That's not all. Perez also owes a $65,000 civil penalty, must stop any further violations, and can't trade on these markets for three years.

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Perez wasn't guessing. He had already read the speeches.

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His job as a teleprompter operator gave him access to nonpublic drafts of presidential addresses. He knew what was coming.

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The CFTC's enforcement action covered disgorgement of the full $107,539.02, the civil fine, the trading ban, and a cease-and-desist order.

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KalshiEX didn't just sit on the sidelines here. The exchange's surveillance team flagged the unusual trading patterns and reported them to the CFTC.

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

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But the case clearly exposed gaps. Kalshi has since rolled out enhanced measures — risk scoring for markets that carry higher insider or manipulation risk, employment…

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That's an honest admission, and it matters. Prediction markets are relatively new at this scale.

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The agency put out an advisory in February that's worth flagging here. It spelled out that designated contract markets — platforms like Kalshi — carry their own responsibility to…

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Kalshi's quick identification of Perez's trades fits that model. The exchange saw something off, reported it, and cooperated through the investigation.

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

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