Settlement with CFTC

A former White House teleprompter operator has been fined and ordered to forfeit more than US$100,000 in profits as part of a settlement with federal regulators over bets made on President Donald Trump's speeches. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Friday that Gabriel Perez would pay a civil penalty of US$65,000 and disgorge profits totaling 02, according to the agency's news release. The CFTC also imposed a three-year trading ban on Perez.

The CFTC said that Perez exploited "material, nonpublic information" gathered through his work for the president to place wagers on the Kalshi prediction platform "for his personal benefit." Perez "agreed to cease and desist from further violations" of federal laws prohibiting market manipulation and CFTC regulations, the agency said. The CFTC noted that the amounts represented "a substantial discount," attributing that to what it called "Perez's exemplary cooperation" with its investigation.

The bets

According to the CFTC, Perez traded presidential "mention market" contracts on Kalshi between December 2025 and February 2026 while working at the White House. These event contracts pay out based on whether a president uses specific words or phrases in speeches. Perez's role gave him access to speeches before they were delivered, and he "misappropriated that information" to profit, breaching "his duty of trust and confidence," the CFTC asserted. The Guardian reported that Perez's White House role gave him access to speeches before the president delivered them.

Employment status

Perez was placed on unpaid leave from his job at the White House after reports emerged that he used his position to make bets on what President Trump would say in speeches, as reported by the South China Morning Post. A White House official said in July that Perez was no longer in his position but did not say if he had been fired or resigned. The White House did not immediately comment on the settlement, according to the South China Morning Post.

The settlement follows a period of scrutiny over betting on political events. According to The Guardian, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the reports of insider trading by Perez as "deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace." The Guardian also reported that federal prosecutors indicted US soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke for allegedly making a $400,000 bet on Polymarket, a rival platform to Kalshi.