Gabriel Perez, the teleprompter operator for U.S. President Donald Trump, will not serve any prison time following allegations of insider trading on the prediction market Kalshi. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced his settlement late Friday evening, revealing that Perez will forfeit $107,539 in illicit profits and pay a civil penalty of $65,000. The commission characterized this penalty as a "substantial discount" due to Perez’s significant cooperation during the investigation, which uncovered evidence of his infractions from December 2025 to February 2026 without his assistance.
In addition to the financial penalties, Perez is subject to a three-year trading ban. Interestingly, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, who has previously criticized state litigation against prediction markets, did not provide any statement regarding Perez or his alleged violations in the press release, which instead expressed gratitude toward KalshiEX for its cooperation.
As Trump’s teleprompter operator, Perez had early access to the President's speeches and allegedly exploited this insider information by betting on “mention markets” — markets concerning specific words or phrases that would appear in Trump’s speeches. The CFTC detailed that during at least 14 instances involving 43 trades, Perez placed bets based on whether certain terms would be included or omitted from the speeches.
For example, he would buy a 'Yes' contract if the targeted word was present and a 'No' contract if it was not. On one occasion, he adjusted his trading position upon noticing that Trump had skipped a part of the prepared remarks.
The comparatively lenient treatment of Perez by the CFTC stands in stark contrast to the case of George Santos, a former U.S. Congressman who recently settled with the CFTC for a $35,000 fine related to similar violations. Santos’s penalty was considered double the profit he allegedly made by manipulating a single market regarding his attendance at the 2026 State of the Union address. Although Santos's lawyer claimed the former congressman had fully cooperated with investigators, the nature of that cooperation was not detailed by the CFTC in their announcement. Santos also received a three-year trading ban, like Perez, despite Perez’s multiple violations of insider trading.
