Kalshi says it’s working with feds over $100K Trump teleprompter speech bets

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The prediction market platform Kalshi said Thursday that it flagged suspicious trades on President Trump’s speeches to federal regulators that are reportedly connected to the president’s longtime teleprompter operator.

ABC News reported that Gabriel Perez, who was first hired by Trump in 2016, is in settlement talks with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over allegations that he used inside knowledge about the president’s remarks to place wagers on Kalshi.

“The Kalshi surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades to the CFTC,” Robert DeNault, head of enforcement and legal counsel at Kalshi, wrote in a post on social media.

“We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided all evidence that we collected, as we do with any referral,” he continued.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the teleprompter operator has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, adding Trump “believes it’s deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace.”

“There are very strict ethical guidelines that explicitly state not to do this,” she added. “And the White House counsel’s office makes that clear to all of us who sign up to work in government on behalf of the president.”

A source familiar confirmed to The Hill earlier Thursday that Perez is cooperating with the CFTC, which oversees prediction markets.

Kalshi said its surveillance, as well as some market makers, flagged trades in mention markets related to public statements by Trump that didn’t follow the normal pattern of buying and selling.

Mention markets allow users to place wagers on whether someone will say a particular word or phrase. The markets in this case involved common words, such as country names, economic words, general political topics, campaign phrases and social issues, according to Kalshi.

The company’s surveillance analysts discovered the account holder was employed by the federal government and served as a teleprompter operator, prompting them to freeze the account holding more than $90,000 in profits and ultimately refer the case to the CFTC.

Prediction markets have increasingly come under scrutiny in recent months over concerns about insider trading.

In one of the most high-profile incidents, a U.S. Army soldier was charged in April for using confidential information about the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket. He allegedly raked in more than $400,000.

Both Kalshi and Polymarket have announced efforts to crack down on insider trading in recent months. Kalshi unveiled new guardrails in March to block politicians, athletes and other relevant individuals from trading in certain markets. Last month, the company also said it would start requiring users in some markets to share information about their employers

Polymarket similarly rolled out updated rules in March clarifying that trading on stolen confidential information and illegal tips or by those who can influence the outcome was prohibited on the platform.

Updated at 2:12 p.m. EDT

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