Trump Speech Trades Leave White House Aide With $172K CFTC Bill
Gabriel Perez traded presidential “mention” markets between December 2025 and February 2026 while working as a technical adviser and teleprompter operator. The contracts settled on whether Trump would use particular words or phrases during public speeches.
Advance Access Turned Into a Trading Edge
Perez’s job gave him access to prepared remarks before they were delivered. He typically received the text around an hour before a speech.
Perez used that information to choose between “Yes” and “No” positions on Kalshi. He took positions across 14 Trump-related markets and made money on 39 of 43 contracts. His total profit reached $107,539.02.
The activity covered several high-profile appearances. They included speeches in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Iowa, and Georgia, as well as Trump’s World Economic Forum appearance and an address to Congress.
The CFTC found that Perez misappropriated material, nonpublic information obtained through his federal employment. The case therefore fell under the regulator’s insider-trading rules even though the transactions involved event contracts rather than conventional securities.
Settlement Includes a Three-Year Trading Ban
Perez must return the full $107,539.02 in profits and pay another $65,000 as a civil monetary penalty. The combined amount is $172,539.02.
He also agreed to cease further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. The order bars him from trading on CFTC-regulated markets for three years.
The civil penalty was discounted because of what the agency described as exemplary cooperation during the investigation. Perez provided information and documents to investigators. The CFTC also credited KalshiEX with assisting in the case.
The platform has already moved to strengthen controls around markets where users may have access to sensitive information. Its measures include employment checks for some higher-risk contracts before a user can trade.
Information Risk Goes Beyond Corporate Insiders
The Perez case shows how prediction markets can create compliance risks in places that traditional financial surveillance may not immediately cover. The information advantage came from access to an event itself, rather than earnings data, a transaction, or another familiar market-moving disclosure.
For exchanges, that widens the group of users who may require closer scrutiny. Government employees, advisers, event staff and others with advance knowledge can all hold information capable of determining an event contract. As these products cover a broader range of real-world outcomes, identifying who knows the result before the market does is likely to become a bigger part of day-to-day surveillance.