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Gabriel Perez to pay $172,000 to settle insider-trading charges for betting on President Trump's speeches

Gabriel Perez, a longtime White House teleprompter operator, has agreed to pay $172,000 to settle charges that he traded on advance knowledge of President Trump's speeches. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the settlement on Friday, noting that Perez misappropriated confidential government information to trade "presidential mention market" contracts on the Kalshi prediction platform. Between December 2025 and February 2026, Perez used his position to wager on specific words or phrases the president would use, generating over $107,500 in profits. The administration announced that Perez would surrender these gains and pay a $65,000 civil penalty, in addition to a three-year trading ban. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission cited Perez's "exemplary cooperation" with the investigation as the reason for a discounted penalty. The White House issued an internal memo in March warning staff against using nonpublic information to place bets on prediction markets. Kalshi reported the unusual betting activity and credited the agency with helping the probe. The administration noted that Perez was placed on unpaid leave during the inquiry.

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