A former White House teleprompter operator is being sanctioned for insider trading based on the contents of presidential speeches.
According to a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), between December 2025 and February of this year, Gabriel Perez — who had early access to the contents of forthcoming remarks from his job running the teleprompter for White House speeches — traded event contracts listed on KalshiEX LLC that were based on whether certain words or phases would be used in those speeches.
“Starting in December 2025, Perez began trading President Trump mention market contracts using misappropriated material, nonpublic information concerning President Trump’s speeches for Perez’s own personal, financial benefit,” the order said.
The settlement required Perez to disgorge the profits of his illicit trading, US$107,539, and imposed a three-year trading ban against him. He was also ordered to pay a US$65,000 civil penalty.
The CFTC said that the penalty reflected a “substantial discount” under the regulator’s new policy of providing credit for cooperation. In this case, it said that Perez provided “exemplary” cooperation with the regulator’s investigation.