The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator, to pay $172,539 after finding that he used advance access to President Donald Trump's speeches to trade on prediction markets. The total comprises $107,539.02 in disgorgement of trading profits and a $65,000 civil penalty, under the terms of a federal settlement.

According to the CFTC, Perez traded "mention market" contracts on the online exchange platform Kalshi between December 2025 and February 2026 while working at the White House. These contracts pay out based on whether certain words are mentioned in presidential speeches. Regulators determined that the trading was facilitated by Perez's insider access to information obtained in the course of performing his governmental duties.

The case highlights the problems associated with prediction markets and the potential misuse of advance knowledge of political events. Prediction-market contracts allow participants to trade on political outcomes, and access to non-public information before it is disclosed can violate market regulations. Kalshi operates as a regulated exchange under CFTC oversight, which is why the agency rather than the SEC handled the enforcement action; the case is among the notable applications of commodities-law principles to event contracts, an area that has drawn growing attention as political betting volumes surged around the 2024 U.S. election cycle.

CFTC Fine Includes Three-Year Trading Ban

Under the settlement agreement, Perez must repay his entire trading profits and is banned from trading for three years. He also committed to refrain from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. The civil penalty was reduced to $65,000 in recognition of Perez's "exemplary cooperation" during the regulator's investigation.

Once the trading activity came to light, Perez was placed on unpaid leave from his White House job and subsequently stopped working for the federal government. He had previously served in technical adviser and teleprompter roles in the Trump administration, positions that gave him access to presidential speeches in advance.

Kalshi Surveillance Flags Suspicious Trading

Kalshi detected Perez's activity through its internal surveillance systems after identifying trading patterns that differed from typical market behavior. The platform froze his account and locked more than $90,000 in profits before referring the matter to the CFTC. KalshiEX also received credit from regulators for its assistance with the investigation.

The incident carries broader implications as prediction markets expand their role in political and economic event trading. Regulators face the challenge of maintaining fair markets as these platforms attract more participants and offer increasingly sensitive contracts. Trading based on confidential information can distort prices and undermine confidence among ordinary market participants — a concern analogous to insider trading enforcement in securities markets, applied here through the Commodity Exchange Act's prohibitions on fraud and misuse of confidential information.

The White House had separately warned employees against placing prediction-market bets using nonpublic information. The Perez case gives that guidance greater weight by demonstrating that violations can result in financial penalties, repayment requirements, and trading restrictions.

For prediction-market users, the central lesson is that access to confidential information can carry serious regulatory consequences. The CFTC action also signals that federal oversight extends beyond traditional financial assets to event-based contracts when they fall under commodities regulations. Watchdogs and platforms alike may look to cases like this as a template for surveillance, self-reporting, and cooperation credit; further enforcement could shape how platforms monitor insider activity and protect market integrity.

Source: CFTC press release