Trump teleprompter operator under scrutiny after $100K Kalshi bet

Investing.com -- A White House technical assistant who has operated President Trump's teleprompter since 2016 is in settlement talks with federal regulators after allegedly pocketing more than $100,000 on the prediction market Kalshi by betting on the content of speeches he loaded onto the prompter himself, ABC News reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Kalshi, the CFTC-regulated prediction market where users wager on real-world outcomes, sits at the center of this probe. While Kalshi is privately held, the case carries direct implications for publicly traded companies in the financial-technology and online-gambling space that are expanding into prediction markets, as regulatory scrutiny of insider trading on these platforms intensifies.

Gabriel Perez, the staffer named in the reports, allegedly placed bets across more than a dozen Trump speeches during a three-month window. ABC News cited specific events including the February State of the Union, a December primetime address, a January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and a March Medal of Honor ceremony. NBC News reported separately that Perez made more than $90,000 on Kalshi's "Mentions" market, where users bet on whether specific words or topics are spoken aloud during a public address.

The alleged scheme had a telling detail that investigators say helped expose it. According to ABC News sources, Perez was caught on multiple occasions backing out of wagers mid-speech when Trump deviated from his prepared remarks and skipped over words Perez had already bet would be uttered. Because Perez typically had access to last-minute edits made by Trump himself, investigators concluded he held an information advantage no ordinary bettor could replicate.

The CFTC referred the matter to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who declined to pursue a criminal case. Regulators are instead pursuing a civil settlement that would require Perez to return his profits and refrain from placing similar trades in the future, according to ABC News. Exact settlement terms, including the disgorgement amount and any formal consent order, have not been publicly disclosed.

Kalshi said its own internal systems identified the suspicious activity before regulators came knocking. "Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators," lead lawyer Bobby DeNault said, as quoted by ABC News. The platform has since updated its policies to require users to disclose their employer when registering. DeNault had articulated the underlying legal principle in May: "If you have information by virtue of your job or your employment, something that you have a legal duty surrounding, and you have an obligation not to take that, misappropriate it for yourself."

The White House stopped short of distancing itself from Perez. "The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow," spokesperson Davis Ingle said. "The staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC." It remains unclear whether Perez is still in his White House role or whether any internal disciplinary action beyond the civil settlement is under consideration.

The case does not stand alone. The New Republic noted a parallel episode in April, when a special forces soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged with using confidential intelligence to win $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket. Together, the two cases are shaping a clearer regulatory posture: the CFTC views the misuse of nonpublic government information to trade on prediction markets as insider trading, even when the underlying product is not a traditional security.

The White House had itself signaled awareness of the problem, issuing an internal memo in late March warning staff against using nonpublic information to place prediction-market bets, a directive that followed earlier reports of administration personnel exploiting privileged access.

For Kalshi and the broader prediction-market industry, the outcome of the Perez settlement will be a closely watched precedent. A formal CFTC consent order would establish the first enforcement template for insider trading on event-contract platforms, potentially prompting tighter know-your-customer requirements across the sector. Whether regulators move to mandate employer disclosure industry-wide, or whether Congress weighs in as prediction markets grow in volume and visibility, will determine how significantly the compliance burden shifts for platforms operating in this fast-expanding space.

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