Kalshi permanently bans George Santos over State of the Union bets

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Prediction market company Kalshi said on Monday that it had imposed a penalty of more than $71,000 ‌on former Congressman George Santos and permanently banned him from ‌its platform for betting on his own attendance at U.S. President Donald Trump's State of ​the Union address.

Santos, who was expelled from the House of Representatives in 2023, was also fined by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission a month ago for alleged market manipulation over the incident.

According to Kalshi and ‌the CFTC, Santos made false ⁠statements on social media that benefited his wagers and then did not attend the address, earning him nearly $18,000.

Joe ⁠Murray, a lawyer for Santos, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, but said in July that Santos denied the CFTC's ​allegations ​and settled them only to avoid ​drawn-out litigation, asserting that Santos ‌never intended to deceive anyone or manipulate any market.

Kalshi's decision follows Friday's announcement that the CFTC was imposing $172,000 penalty on former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez, who was accused of using Kalshi to trade on advance knowledge of President Donald Trump's speeches.

The boom in election betting ‌is likely to test the ability of ​prediction markets such as Kalshi to police insider ​trading, according to experts and ​data shared with Reuters. Kalshi and rival Polymarket have ‌said that they are equipped ​to identify and block ​suspicious activity and protect the market integrity.

Trump commuted Santos' seven-year prison sentence for fraud and identity theft last year following his ​guilty plea for inflating ‌fundraising figures and falsifying donor names to secure Republican Party ​financial support during the 2022 election cycle.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison ​in Washington; Editing by Sharon Singleton)