Ex-White House teleprompter operator ordered to pay $172,000 for Trump speech bets

Former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 for using privileged information to bet on Donald Trump’s speeches. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the settlement on Friday, stating Perez had "misappropriated" his anterior cognition of Trump's speeches to spot bets "in breach of his work of spot and confidence". The regulator said he must surrender profits of $107,539.02 and pay a civil penalty of $65,000, with the penalty reduced owing to his exemplary cooperation. Perez is also barred from trading for three years. Kalshi’s lead lawyer Bobby DeNault welcomed the decision on X, writing: "It doesn't substance who you are: interruption our rules oregon national instrumentality and you volition look the consequences." Kalshi said its analysts had noticed anomalous betting activity on “mention markets” in March, used relationship data to identify the individual as a federal employee operating White House teleprompters, and reported the matter to the regulator. The firm added, “The words of governmental leaders similar Presidents and Fed chairs origin billions of dollars of question successful FX markets, lipid futures, [and] the banal market,” in a statement released in July. In July, then‑press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Perez was on unpaid leave and would not return to his post. The White House Management Office also issued a memo to aides that month advising them not to bet on prediction markets, according to CBS News. The White House has not commented on the case.