TLDR
- Gabriel Perez used advance access to Trump’s prepared speeches to trade prediction market contracts
- He profited on 39 of the 43 Trump mention contracts he traded
- The CFTC ordered him to give up $107,539.02 in profits and pay a $65,000 penalty
- Perez received a reduced penalty for cooperating with the investigation
- The case joins several other insider trading actions tied to prediction markets this year
A former White House teleprompter operator has agreed to pay more than $172,000 to settle insider trading charges. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Gabriel Perez used early access to President Trump’s prepared remarks to place winning bets on prediction market contracts.
Perez worked as a technical adviser and ran the president’s teleprompter during public events. That job gave him access to Trump’s speeches about an hour before they were delivered.
How the Trades Worked
Perez opened a trading account on the Kalshi platform in December 2025. He focused his trading on sports events and contracts tied to specific words Trump might say during speeches.
According to the CFTC order, Perez would read the prepared remarks before an event. He would then buy contracts betting on whether certain words or phrases would be said.
In one instance, Perez changed his bet mid speech. He had noticed Trump skipped a line that contained a word he had already traded on.
Perez placed trades around several major Trump appearances. These included the State of the Union address, a World Economic Forum appearance, the National Prayer Breakfast, and campaign style stops in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Iowa and Georgia.
The CFTC found he made money on 39 of the 43 contracts he traded. His total profit came to $107,539.02.
Federal ethics rules bar government employees from using nonpublic information for personal financial gain. The CFTC said the information Perez had access to counted as confidential.
The Settlement Terms
Under the settlement, Perez must give back all $107,539.02 in profits. He also has to pay a civil penalty of $65,000.
Perez agreed to a three year ban from trading on regulated markets. The case became public in July, after which Perez was placed on leave and later left his government job.
The CFTC said Perez cooperated early in the investigation. He sat for an interview soon after the probe began and turned over documents without being compelled to do so.
That cooperation earned him a 40 percent reduction in his civil penalty. That is higher than the standard 25 percent reduction the agency typically offers.
Perez is not the only person facing charges over prediction market trades this year. In July, the CFTC fined former Congressman George Santos around $35,000 for manipulating a Kalshi market about his own attendance at the State of the Union.
The agency has also pursued two larger cases involving Polymarket. In April, it sued a U.S. Army servicemember accused of using classified military information to profit more than $404,000 from a market tied to a military operation in Venezuela.
In May, the CFTC charged a Google employee with using nonpublic search data to make about $1.2 million on related contracts. Reports last week said federal authorities are preparing more insider trading cases.
Those new cases reportedly involve another U.S. servicemember and an employee at the accounting firm KPMG. Officials expect those charges could come as early as this fall.
