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White House teleprompter operator ordered to pay $172K for placing prediction market bets on Trump’s speeches
NBC News • • general
Key Points:
- Gabriel Perez, a teleprompter operator for President Donald Trump, was ordered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to pay $172,000 for making prediction trades using nonpublic information from upcoming speeches.
- Perez earned $107,539.02 in profits and was fined an additional $65,000 as a civil penalty, along with a three-year ban from trading on prediction markets.
- The trades were conducted through the prediction market platform Kalshi, which assisted in the investigation after detecting the prohibited activity.
- The CFTC classified the case as insider trading involving "presidential mention market contracts" based on words or phrases expected in Trump's speeches.
- Perez was placed on leave in July following the revelation, with then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt condemning the actions as an ethical breach and stating he would no longer be employed.
