White House teleprompter operator ordered to pay $172K for placing prediction market bets on Trump’s speeches

A teleprompter operator for President Donald Trump who made online prediction trades based on information from upcoming speeches has been ordered to pay $172,000, a federal agency said Friday night. Gabriel Perez used “material, nonpublic information” he obtained through his job to place “trades” on a prediction market, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a news release. Perez was ordered to pay the money he made in profits, $107,539.02, as well as a civil penalty of $65,000. He’s also banned from trading on prediction markets for three years, the CFTC said. Perez made the trades through Kalshi. The CFTC said Kalshi assisted in the matter. “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, said in a post on X. “It doesn’t matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences,” he added. The White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday night. Perez could not be reached for comment. The CFTC called it a case of insider trading, adding that Perez traded “presidential mention market contracts, which are event contracts reflecting words or phrases the President may use during his speeches.” Perez was a technical assistant to the president who had served as a teleprompter operator for Trump since 2016. The CFTC cited what it called Perez’s “exemplary cooperation” in the case when announcing the fine and penalties Friday. Then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in July called the online trades a breach of ethics, and “deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace.” Perez was placed on leave in July and Leavitt said at the time that “this individual will no longer be here.”