Washington, D.C. — A former teleprompter operator for President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 after regulators found that he used inside information to bet on what Trump would say during public appearances.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Gabriel Perez must return $107,539.02 in profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty. He also agreed to a three-year trading ban and to stop violating federal commodities laws.
Perez, who had worked for Trump since 2016, placed bets through prediction market Kalshi on whether specific words, phrases or topics would appear in Trump speeches. ABC News reported that the wagers covered more than a dozen appearances over roughly three months, including the State of the Union, Trump’s World Economic Forum address in Davos and a Medal of Honor ceremony.
Kalshi detected unusual trading activity and reported it to the CFTC, which began investigating.
The commission said Perez received a reduced penalty because of his “exemplary cooperation” with investigators.
The case comes as regulators and prosecutors scrutinize prediction-market trades involving individuals with access to nonpublic government information. In a separate case, a U.S. special operations soldier was indicted in April for allegedly using classified information to profit from wagers tied to the removal of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He has pleaded not guilty.
