According to sources cited by ABC News, the CFTC is negotiating a settlement with Gabriel Perez, a teleprompter operator for Donald Trump. Over a three-month period, Perez allegedly made more than $100,000 on the prediction market platform Kalshi by betting on the contents of speeches he had access to before they were delivered. Under the proposed settlement, he would be required to return his profits and agree not to engage in similar trading in the future. The White House has suspended Perez without pay.
Case Details
According to ABC News sources, Perez has served as Trump’s teleprompter operator since 2016 and had access to the final versions of presidential speeches, including last-minute edits Trump made shortly before taking the stage. He allegedly used that information on the Mentions prediction market, where users trade on whether specific words, phrases, or topics will appear in public speeches.
Investigators identified trades tied to more than a dozen speeches, including Trump’s February address to Congress, a December evening speech, his January address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the March Medal of Honor ceremony, and his January speech before the Detroit Economic Club.
Trump frequently departs from prepared remarks, something he has publicly acknowledged on multiple occasions, making the strategy much riskier.
“You know, when you come out here, you’re taking a big risk. Especially me, because about 80% of the time I go off the teleprompter script,” the president said during his January speech to the Detroit Economic Club.
Investigators found that Perez sometimes closed his positions while the speeches were still underway after Trump skipped sections containing the words Perez had bet on.
How the Scheme Was Discovered
Kalshi prohibits trading based on non-public information obtained through a person’s job. A month ago, the platform also introduced a requirement for all users to disclose their employer. Kalshi detected the suspicious trading activity on its own and referred the matter to the CFTC.
“Our surveillance team quickly flagged these trades and referred them to the CFTC. We’re cooperating with regulators and assisting with the investigation,” said Bobby DeNault, Kalshi’s Head of Enforcement.
Perez testified before the CFTC and admitted to some of the trades. The regulator also notified the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, which declined to pursue criminal charges.
White House Response
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Donald Trump called the incident a disgrace and ordered Perez to be placed on unpaid leave.
“There is no information suggesting there have been any other similar cases within the administration,” she said.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle noted that administration employees are subject to strict ethics rules. He also said that in March, the White House circulated an internal memo prohibiting staff from using non-public information to trade on prediction markets, according to ABC News sources.
Perez’s case adds to the growing number of investigations involving insider trading on prediction markets. Earlier, the U.S. Department of Justice brought its first criminal cases against a former special forces operative who allegedly traded using confidential information related to the search for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and against a Google employee accused of trading based on internal search query data. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.