[FoxBusinessNews] The CFTC found Gabriel Perez used advance access to Trump's remarks to trade prediction market contracts for profit.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, 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.
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.
The CFTC found that between December 2025 and February 2026, while working as a White House teleprompter operator, Perez traded "presidential mention market contracts," which reflected words or phrases Trump might use during his speeches.
The event contracts paid out based on whether Trump used specific words or phrases during his public remarks.
According to the CFTC, Perez had access to presidential speeches before they were delivered and "misappropriated" that information in "breach of his duty of trust and confidence" to make the trades.
Perez generated more than $107,500 in profits, according to the agency.
His $65,000 civil penalty represented a "substantial discount" because of his "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."
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