White House teleprompter operator settles prediction market trading probe

The White House teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, has agreed to settle a federal investigation into trading on prediction markets using information he had about President Donald Trump's speeches ahead of time, according to The Wall Street Journal. Perez will pay a $65,000 civil penalty and return over $107,000 in winnings to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

He faces a three-year ban from accessing prediction market platform Kalshi. The CFTC alleges Perez misappropriated the information due to his role. The regulator noted that Perez had access to presidential speeches before they were delivered. Kalshi identified Perez's suspicious bets earlier in the year, froze his account, and returned about $90,000 of his profits before notifying the CFTC.

Perez had been on unpaid administrative leave previously. The White House admitted it was unaware of Perez's betting activities and warned staff against using government information for such purposes. The settlement follows expanding scrutiny of prediction market trading by U.S. authorities. Federal prosecutors recently charged a soldier with allegedly using classified information to bet over $400,000 on Polymarket that Venezuela's former leader, Nicolás Maduro, would be removed from office.

They are also preparing potential charges against a servicemember accused of earning more than $1 million from bets related to military strikes in Iran and Venezuela. Meanwhile, a KPMG employee is under investigation for wagering on whether a public company would meet its earnings expectations.