Trump Teleprompter Operator Fined $172,000 After Kalshi Insider Trading Probe

A federal regulator has fined a former White House teleprompter operator $172,000 after a Kalshi surveillance investigation flagged him for betting on the words President Trump would use in upcoming speeches — an insider trading case that adds to a growing list of trading controversies surrounding the second Trump administration.Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant who operated Mr. Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, used “material, nonpublic information” obtained through his job to place trades on the prediction market Kalshi, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a press release Friday night.The agency ordered him to return $107,539 in profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty. Mr. Perez was also handed a three-year ban from trading on prediction markets and agreed to cease and desist from further violations of federal market manipulation laws.According to the commodities commission, between December 2025 and February 2026 Mr. Perez traded “presidential mention market contracts, which are event contracts reflecting words or phrases the President may use during his speeches.” His role gave him access to speeches before Mr. Trump delivered them, and he “misappropriated that information” — breaching “his duty of trust and confidence” — to turn a profit.The case originated with the exchange itself. “A Kalshi surveillance investigation caught a White House staffer engaging in prohibited trading activity. Today this individual was subjected to penalties by the CFTC and by our exchange,” Bobby DeNault, Kalshi’s lead lawyer, wrote on X.“It doesn’t matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences,” he added. Kalshi bars users from trading on information obtained through their jobs, and in June updated its policies to require users to disclose their place of employment.Investigators reportedly found that Mr. Perez, who earned an annual salary of $175,000, bet on more than a dozen Trump speeches over three months, including February’s State of the Union address, a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and remarks during a March Medal of Honor ceremony.Sources said Mr. Perez sat for an interview with regulators and acknowledged some of the trades. At one point the CFTC alerted federal prosecutors at Manhattan, who declined to open a criminal investigation.The CFTC said the penalty reflected a “substantial discount” due to Mr. Perez’s “exemplary cooperation with the CFTC.” Mr. Perez was placed on unpaid administrative leave in July and left his post the following month, though it was unclear whether he resigned or was fired. The then-press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the online trades “deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace,” telling reporters “this individual will no longer be here.” Mr. Perez’s case is the latest to expose how booming prediction markets have incentivized insider trading. Months earlier, prosecutors charged a United States Army master sergeant involved in the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro after a newly created Polymarket account placed $32,537 on Mr. Maduro leaving office and won $436,000 following his January capture.Suspicion has also reached the highest levels of government. Analysts have flagged suspiciously well-timed trades on Polymarket ahead of the 2026 Iran war and Mr. Trump’s oil-related announcements, with one investigation finding nine accounts that predicted 80 wartime events at a 98 percent accuracy rate.Mr. Trump himself made billions from securities trades in 2025, buying stock in companies affected by his own policies — including 327 stocks worth roughly $12.8 million the day before he paused his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs. His net worth has nearly tripled since the start of his second term, reaching $6.5 billion. In a single year back in the White House, he made more than $2 billion — from cryptocurrency, hotels, golf courses, cellphones, watches, cologne, and Bibles bearing his name.The White House maintains that Mr. Trump’s stock trades are entirely managed by independent third-party firms that use computer-based model portfolios that buy and sell equities to mimic recognized market indexes, such as the Schwab 1000.House Democrats this week announced they are launching a new probe into Donald Trump Jr. and the venture capital firm he joined as a partner weeks after his father won a second term, alleging insider trading and fraud. Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a letter shared first with MS NOW that “With Don Jr.’s new leadership role, 1789 Capital has developed an uncanny ability to identify companies that are about to receive massive influxes of cash from the Trump Administration or to benefit from significant changes in federal policies and regulations. They say there is no such thing as a sure thing in investing, but this is about as close as you can get.”Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing, telling CNBC’s Joe Kernen in July that his children have had “inside information” but insisting federal conflict-of-interest laws do not require a president to recuse himself from decisions affecting his wealth.Meanwhile, the United States has dropped to its worst-ever ranking in a leading global index that measures the perception of public sector corruption among business people and independent experts.In the latest Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International, the world’s most powerful democracy fell one spot to 29th place out of 182 countries.

Trump Teleprompter Operator Fined $172,000 After Kalshi Insider Trading Probe

Trump Teleprompter Operator Fined $172,000 After Kalshi Insider Trading Probe

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