Ex-White House aide pays $172,000 over Trump speech bets
What's new: The CFTC also barred Gabriel Perez from trading for three years after finding he used advance speech access to profit on Kalshi.
A former White House teleprompter operator agreed to pay more than $172,000 after US regulators found he used advance access to President Donald Trump's speeches to place prediction-market bets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Gabriel Perez traded contracts on Kalshi between December 2025 and February 2026 over whether Trump would mention certain words or phrases. Perez must give up $107,539.02 in profits, pay a $65,000 civil penalty and serve a three-year trading ban. The agency said he misused nonpublic information gained through his job, violating a duty of trust. The White House had previously put Perez on unpaid leave, and Kalshi said it flagged unusual activity and reported it to regulators.