Former White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez has agreed to pay $172,539 after US regulators found that he used advance access to President Donald Trump’s prepared speeches to trade prediction-market contracts on Kalshi.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Perez to surrender $107,539.02 in trading profits and pay a $65,000 civil monetary penalty. He will also be barred from trading on designated contract markets for three years and must cease further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and related CFTC rules.
Perez worked as a technical adviser and teleprompter operator during Trump’s public appearances. His position gave him access to prepared presidential remarks before they were delivered, often around an hour in advance.
The regulator concluded that Perez used that confidential information to trade so-called mention markets, event contracts whose value depends on whether a particular word or phrase is used during a speech.
Perez profited on 39 of 43 contracts
Perez opened his Kalshi account on 8 December 2025 and traded heavily in markets connected to Trump’s public appearances between December 2025 and February 2026.
The CFTC found that he traded 43 Trump-related mention contracts and recorded profits on 39 of them, generating a total of $107,539.02. The markets covered appearances including Trump’s State of the Union address, the World Economic Forum, the National Prayer Breakfast and speeches in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Iowa and Georgia.
According to the regulator, Perez reviewed prepared remarks before speeches and bought either “Yes” or “No” contracts depending on whether certain words were scheduled to appear.
In one instance, he adjusted his position after noticing during an event that Trump had departed from the prepared script and skipped a section containing a word connected to one of his trades.
Federal ethics rules prohibit government employees from using nonpublic information obtained through their positions for private financial benefit. The CFTC said Perez breached his duty of trust and confidence by using confidential White House material for trading.
Cooperation led to a reduced civil penalty
Perez received a lower monetary penalty because of his cooperation with investigators. The CFTC said he quickly agreed to an interview and voluntarily provided documents relevant to the inquiry.
The agency said his cooperation resulted in an approximately 40% reduction in the civil penalty, exceeding the 25% reduction normally available under its enforcement cooperation framework when extraordinary assistance is not present.
Perez was previously placed on unpaid administrative leave after the trading activity became public and is no longer employed by the federal government. The circumstances of his departure have not been publicly clarified.
The CFTC also credited KalshiEX with assisting its investigation.
The case comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of prediction-market trading involving individuals with privileged or nonpublic information. The CFTC has pursued several recent enforcement cases connected to event contracts, including action against former US congressman George Santos over trading tied to his own attendance at Trump’s State of the Union address.