• Gabriel Perez fined $172,000 for illegal trading on Trump's speech information.
• The CFTC ordered Perez to repay over $107,000 in profits.
• Perez agreed to a three-year trading ban following a settlement.
• White House officials stated Perez was placed on unpaid leave amid the investigation.
• Kalshi, the trading platform, alerted regulators to unusual trading patterns.

Gabriel Perez, a former teleprompter operator at the White House, has been ordered by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to pay a total of $172,539 for using insider information from President Donald Trump's speeches to place illegal bets on the prediction market Kalshi. This amount includes over $107,500 in profits and a civil penalty of $65,000, which was notably reduced due to his "exemplary cooperation" with the investigation, according to Reuters, SCMP, CBS News, and BBC.

Perez conducted trades on presidential "mention market" contracts while working at the White House between December 2025 and February 2026, using his access to speech contents prior to their public disclosure. The CFTC determined that this misappropriation constituted a breach of his duty of trust, leading to the substantial penalties imposed upon him, as noted by Reuters and BBC.

In light of these findings, Perez has been banned from trading for three years. Following the emergence of the scandal, he was placed on unpaid leave, although the White House has not officially commented on his current employment status. Kalshi, the platform involved, noted that they identified Perez's unusual betting activity and cooperated with the CFTC, indicating their commitment to preventing such violations, according to SCMP, CBS News, and BBC.