Ex-White House Teleprompter Operator to Forfeit Over $100,000 and Pay $65,000 Fine in Insider Trading Settlement
Key Takeaways
- •Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator, must surrender $107,500 in profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty under a CFTC settlement.
- •The settlement also imposes a three-year trading ban on Perez.
- •Perez earned the profits on Kalshi between December 2025 and February 2026 by betting on words and phrases that would appear in Trump's speeches.
- •The CFTC said Perez misappropriated nonpublic information in breach of his duty of trust, and reduced his penalty for exemplary cooperation.
- •The case is a high-profile test of how insider trading principles apply to CFTC-regulated prediction markets like Kalshi.
A former White House teleprompter operator accused of exploiting inside knowledge to place bets on the prediction market Kalshi has been ordered to surrender more than $100,000 in profits and pay a $65,000 fine under a settlement with federal authorities.
The settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), announced Friday, also imposed a three-year trading ban on Gabriel Perez. Perez had been placed on unpaid leave from his White House job after reports surfaced that he used his position to wager on what President Donald Trump would say in his speeches.
The case is a high-profile test of how insider trading principles apply to prediction markets. Kalshi, a CFTC-regulated exchange, offers event contracts that let traders bet on outcomes such as political and economic events — and, as this case shows, on the content of public statements. Because Kalshi operates under the CFTC's jurisdiction, the commission was positioned to pursue the matter using its authority over fraud and misuse of material nonpublic information in derivatives markets, an enforcement theory that has been applied far more rarely in prediction markets than in traditional securities markets.
The White House did not immediately comment on the settlement. A White House official said in July that Perez was no longer in his position, but declined to say whether he had been fired or resigned.
The commission found that Perez earned $107,500 on prediction markets between December 2025 and February 2026 by betting on words and phrases that would appear in Trump's speeches.
"In his position, Perez had access to presidential speeches prior to those speeches being delivered and Perez misappropriated that information — in breach of his duty of trust and confidence," the commission said in a release.
Perez was ordered to repay his profits in full, along with a $65,000 civil penalty — an amount the commission said was reduced in recognition of his "exemplary cooperation."
When details of the case emerged on July 16, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the matter as "unfortunate" and "a disgrace."
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
