A former White House teleprompter operator was fined over $170,000 for using insider information to bet on what topics Donald Trump would discuss in his speeches.
Foreign news agencies reported on 29 Aug 2026 that the former White House teleprompter operator was fined more than $172,000 (around 5.6 million baht) for using insider information to place bets on the content of President Donald Trump's speeches.
Gabriel Perez was found to have traded based on what the U.S. president would say in multiple speeches between December 2025 and February 2026 through Kalshi, a prediction market platform allowing users to bet on real-world events.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the regulator of the platform, stated that Perez "improperly exploited" advance knowledge of Trump's speech content to place bets, constituting a "breach of duty of trust and confidence."
The CFTC ordered Perez to return profits totaling $107,539.02 and pay an additional civil fine of $65,000. He was also banned from trading on prediction markets for three years.
The White House has not issued further comments on the case, but in July, then-White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitt said Perez was suspended without pay and will not return to his former position.
Bobby Donalt, head of Kalshi's legal team, welcomed the ruling, posting on X: "No matter who you are, if you break our rules or federal law, you will face consequences."
Earlier, Kalshi told the BBC that in March, their analysts noticed unusual betting patterns in the "Mention markets," where users predict if speakers will use certain common words such as specific country names, campaign slogans, or particular terms.
The company used account data to identify the user as a federal government employee operating the teleprompter at the White House and reported this behavior to regulators.
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Source:bbc