CFTC Probes White House Teleprompter Scribe After $90K Kalshi Prediction Market Windfall 🎭

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has opened an insider trading investigation into a longtime White House teleprompter operator over bets he allegedly placed on the federally regulated prediction market Kalshi, according to an ABC News report. The trader, identified as Gabriel Perez, is reported to have profited more than $90,000 from contracts tied to a mentions market on presidential statements, trades that Kalshi flagged as suspicious before notifying the agency.

Kalshi has frozen the majority of the positions in question while the probe proceeds. The White House confirmed the case and announced that Perez has been placed on administrative leave. Perez has operated the teleprompter for Donald Trump's speeches since the 2016 presidential campaign, a role that provides him with direct, advance exposure to the text of the president's remarks before they are publicly delivered.

Prediction markets operate under CFTC oversight and prohibit participants from trading on the basis of material non-public information, the same disclosure standard applied to commodities and derivatives markets more broadly. Kalshi, one of two CFTC-designated contract markets offering event contracts to U.S. retail customers, has compliance procedures in place to detect and report unusual trading patterns that may be tied to insider knowledge of forthcoming news or announcements.

The case marks one of the first publicly disclosed insider trading investigations centered on a prediction market, a venue that has expanded rapidly during the 2024 election cycle and into 2025. The CFTC has not issued a public statement on the Perez matter beyond confirmation of an active probe, and Kalshi has declined to comment beyond noting the cooperation agreement with the agency. No charges have been filed, and the matter remains under review by regulators.