Former White House Teleprompter Operator Ordered to Pay $172,000 for Kalshi Trades on Mention Markets

A former White House teleprompter operator has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 to resolve federal regulatory charges involving insider trading on event prediction platform Kalshi. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a settlement with Gabriel Perez, a former White House technical adviser and teleprompter operator, for leveraging material, nonpublic access to presidential speeches to bet on regulated event contracts. The enforcement action marks one of the first high-profile federal insider trading cases involving event prediction contracts tied to government insiders. According to regulatory filings, Perez misappropriated early drafts of speeches delivered by President Donald Trump between December 2025 and February 2026. Armed with advance knowledge of specific words and phrases scheduled to be spoken, Perez executed targeted trades on Kalshi’s popular u0022mention markets,u0022 extracting illicit gains across dozens of transactions. Inside the Cftc Settlement and Enforcement Penalties Under the terms of the settlement, Perez is required to disgorge $107,539.02 in ill-gotten profits and pay a civil monetary penalty of $65,000, bringing the total payout to $172,539.02. The CFTC also imposed a mandatory three-year ban on Perez from trading on any CFTC-registered prediction markets or derivatives exchanges, alongside a cease-and-desist order against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The regulator noted that the $65,000 civil penalty reflected a reduced assessment owing to Perezu0027s u0022exemplary cooperationu0022 throughout the investigation. Settlement Element Detailed Parameter / Resolution Respondent Gabriel Perez (Ex-White House Teleprompter Operator) Regulatory Authority Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Platform Involved KalshiEX LLC (CFTC-Regulated Exchange) Disgorgement Amount $107,539.02 Civil Monetary Penalty $65,000.00 Total Financial Assessment $172,539.02 Trading Ban Duration 3 Years (CFTC-Designated Contract Markets) Active Enforcement Period December 2025 - February 2026 The CFTC detailed that Perez executed 49 trades during the specified timeframe, emerging successful on 39 of them - yielding an extraordinary win rate driven entirely by nonpublic speech drafts. In an official statement detailing the violation, the CFTC outlined: “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.” Internal Exchange Surveillance Triggered Regulatory Probe The scheme unravelled after Kalshi’s internal market integrity and compliance monitoring systems flagged anomalous trading patterns centered on niche presidential mention contracts. Account activity linked to Perez exhibited statistical anomalies, prompting Kalshiu0027s compliance unit to lock the account, freezing over $90,000 in active platform balances before referring the matter directly to law enforcement. Bobby DeNault, lead counsel at Kalshi, addressed the enforcement action publicly, reiterating the exchangeu0027s cooperation with federal regulators: “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. It doesnu0027t matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law, and you will face the consequences.” The White House had previously issued internal guidance reminding administration personnel regarding ethics guidelines and prediction markets. Following preliminary reports of the investigation in July, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized the conduct as u0022unfortunateu0022 and u0022a disgrace,u0022 confirming that Perez had been placed on unpaid leave before his separation from federal service. Technical specifications and trading metrics recorded during the enforcement window include: Total Executed Contracts: 49 trades on presidential speech mention markets Winning Trade Count: 39 settled positions Net Realized Profit: $107,539.02 Frozen Platform Capital: $90,000+ secured by Kalshi risk engines Regulatory Charges: Section 6(c)(1) of Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Rule 180.1 Heightened Regulatory Focus on Prediction Markets The Perez settlement underscores growing oversight across event-driven prediction markets and decentralized forecasting tools. As trading volumes on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket expanded rapidly, market surveillance capabilities have faced closer scrutiny from federal agencies. The case marks the CFTCu0027s second major enforcement action involving federal employees utilizing confidential government data to speculate on derivative contracts. Regulatory experts indicate that as prediction markets expand into political, economic, and legislative outcomes, federal agencies will continue treating material nonpublic event data under established insider trading enforcement frameworks. Who Is Gabriel Perez and What Was His Role at the White House? Gabriel Perez was a deputy assistant and technical adviser at the White House who served as President Donald Trumpu0027s teleprompter operator. In this role, he had direct, advance access to drafts of speeches prior to public delivery. How Did the Kalshi Mention Market Trading Scheme Work? Perez used nonpublic speech text to place bets on Kalshi’s u0022mention markets,u0022 which allow users to trade contracts based on whether specific words or phrases will be spoken during public events. Because he possessed speech scripts in advance, he placed winning bets with unfair knowledge of the outcome. How Much Money Was the Former White House Staffer Ordered to Pay? Perez was ordered to pay a total of $172,539.02. This includes $107,539.02 in disgorged profits and a discounted civil monetary penalty of $65,000 resulting from his cooperation with federal investigators. How Was the Insider Trading Detected on Kalshi? Kalshi’s automated exchange surveillance systems flagged unusual buying patterns on specific speech contracts. The compliance team froze more than $90,000 in Perezu0027s account and referred the case directly to the CFTC for federal prosecution. What Additional Penalties Did the Cftc Impose? In addition to financial disgorgement and civil fines, Perez received a mandatory three-year ban from trading on all CFTC-regulated derivative and prediction market exchanges, along with a formal cease-and-desist order.