White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez leaves government after insider trading allegations on Kalshi prediction market using advance Trump speech knowledge.
Regulation & Gov ·
Gabriel Perez, a White House teleprompter operator, has departed his federal position following unpaid suspension related to allegations of using confidential information about Trump speeches to place wagers on the prediction market Kalshi. According to officials, Perez accumulated more than $100,000 through such trades, leveraging advance knowledge of major addresses including the State of the Union. The White House condemned the conduct as "deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace," while Kalshi's enforcement team detected the trades, investigated, and escalated the matter to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Kalshi's own internal safeguards have grown stricter as the prediction-market sector faces mounting regulatory scrutiny. In April, the platform barred three political candidates from trading on elections in which they held candidacies after determining the activity violated insider-trading rules under its CFTC authorization. A parallel case emerged on rival platform Polymarket, where prosecutors charged a US soldier with betting on Venezuelan politics while involved in related operations, netting approximately $400,000.
The legal environment for prediction markets shifted this week when a federal judge temporarily blocked Minnesota's ban on such platforms, ruling the state law likely conflicts with the federal Commodity Exchange Act. The injunction paused enforcement of the measure signed by Governor Tim Walz in May, though the judge left room for future modification of the order. Whether Perez resigned or was terminated remains undisclosed.