Current Affairs Security

White House Teleprompter Operator Out After Kalshi Insider Trading Probe

2026-07-29

Gabriel Perez is no longer working for the federal government. A White House official confirmed this on Tuesday but wouldn't say whether he resigned or was pushed—which tells you everything you need to know.

The teleprompter operator, who's been running Trump's speeches since 2016, faced allegations that he used his front-row seat to the presidential text to pocket over $100,000 in bets on Kalshi's prediction market platform. The mechanics here are delicious in their simplicity: Kalshi runs a "Mentions" market where users bet on whether specific words, phrases, or topics will be said during public addresses. Perez apparently knew what was coming. He bet accordingly. More than a dozen speeches, from the State of the Union to a Medal of Honor ceremony, all had finalised text weeks in advance. All were apparently fair game.

Kalshi's surveillance systems caught the pattern. Unusual trading spikes. Suspicious timing. The platform froze the funds, flagged the lot to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and cooperated fully. Bobby DeNault, Kalshi's head of enforcement, made the statement: they promptly flagged and referred the trades. All very professional.

The White House placed Perez on unpaid administrative leave after ABC News broke the story. Trump called it a "disgrace." Two weeks later, Perez was out entirely.

What makes this case remarkable is the sheer precedent. This is the first known instance of a White House employee involved in an insider trading scheme on prediction markets. It's the first real test of how regulators actually handle this sort of thing when it reaches the top level of government. The CFTC is discussing settlement terms with Perez now, which could mean he gives back what he won. Kalshi's already frozen roughly $90,000 sitting in his account.

The broader context matters. Prediction markets have exploded over the past year, especially after Kalshi won a court battle against the CFTC in 2024 that legalised election betting nationwide. The growth has been staggering. But growth without guard rails breeds exactly this kind of problem. Kalshi has a policy against users betting on information obtained through their jobs, and they've recently tightened things up by requiring users to disclose where they work. The White House, meanwhile, sent staff a memo in March warning them that using nonpublic government information to bet on Kalshi or Polymarket is a criminal offence. Good timing on that one.

Perez has been cooperating with the investigation, which suggests he might cut a deal rather than fight it. The CFTC has made clear it's serious about this space now. The Department of Justice has already brought the first two insider trading cases on prediction markets: a special forces soldier who allegedly bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and a Google employee who allegedly used internal company data to bet on user searches. The pattern is real. The enforcement is coming.

This wasn't a clever scheme. It was obvious fraud in plain sight—caught by exactly the kind of surveillance systems that should have caught it.

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