A White House teleprompter operator who used advance access to President Donald Trump's speeches to bet on what the president would say has been ordered to pay nearly $173,000 and stop trading for three years, federal regulators announced Friday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said Gabriel Perez, who has served as Trump's teleprompter operator since 2016, misappropriated material, nonpublic information obtained through his government job to trade event contracts on Kalshi, a prediction market platform, for his personal benefit. The case is a notable test of how insider-trading-style principles apply to prediction markets, which have expanded rapidly since election betting platforms gained broader legal footing in the United States in recent years. Event contracts on political outcomes and public remarks fall under CFTC jurisdiction because they are traded as regulated derivatives.

Perez, who was placed on paid administrative leave in July amid the investigation into his conduct, was ordered to surrender $107,539 in trading profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty. The CFTC also imposed a three-year trading ban and ordered Perez to cease and desist from further violations of federal commodities laws and regulations.

According to the CFTC, Perez traded "presidential mention market contracts" between December 2025 and February 2026 while working as a White House teleprompter operator. These event contracts reflected words or phrases Trump might use during his speeches and paid out based on whether the president used specific words or phrases in his public remarks.

The agency said Perez had access to presidential speeches before they were delivered and "misappropriated" that information in "breach of his duty of trust and confidence" to execute the trades, generating more than $107,500 in profits. The enforcement theory mirrors the classic misappropriation doctrine applied in securities cases, in which trading on confidential information obtained in breach of a duty to its source is treated as fraud.

The $65,000 civil penalty represented a "substantial discount" in recognition of Perez's "exemplary cooperation" with the investigation, the CFTC said.

Robert DeNault, Kalshi's head of enforcement, reacted to the enforcement action, saying traders who violate the company's rules must be held accountable.

"A Kalshi surveillance investigation caught a White House staffer engaging in prohibited trading activity," DeNault wrote on X.

"Today this individual was subjected to penalties by the CFTC and by our exchange," he continued. "It doesn't matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences."

The trading activity first came to light months earlier, after Kalshi's surveillance systems flagged a series of unusual trades involving markets tied to words and phrases expected to appear in Trump's public remarks. Kalshi previously said the trades stood out because they did not follow typical trading patterns and also drew complaints from market makers through the platform's whistleblower channels.

After reviewing account information, the company said it identified the trader as a federal employee who worked as a White House teleprompter operator. Kalshi froze the account before Perez could withdraw most of the profits, the company previously said, and referred the matter to federal regulators. The episode underscores how exchanges and regulators may continue to police trading on advance knowledge of government communications as prediction markets attract more participants.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed Perez's conduct during a press briefing in July, saying Trump had been briefed on the matter.

"Obviously, I'm aware of the report. The president is, too. I spoke with him about it," Leavitt said. "He believes it's deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace."

FOX Business has reached out to the White House for comment and an update on Perez's employment status. Fox News Digital's Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.