White House teleprompter operator bet on Trump speeches, Kalshi says
A White House teleprompter operator used his position to win around $100,000 by placing bets on the prediction market Kalshi about what President Donald Trump would say in his speeches, the company said Thursday.
Read more Trump administration caps how long international students can stay in the US
It was the latest accusation that someone had used inside information to make a profit on a prediction market such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which have grown rapidly and transformed into cultural phenomena.
In this case, Kalshi said Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to Trump, had placed wagers on common words that would appear in the president’s speeches, such as country names and economic terms. In March, when Kalshi’s surveillance systems flagged some of Perez’s trades, the company froze the funds in his account and referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets.
Perez is in discussions with federal regulators to settle allegations that he used his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to place the bets and has been cooperative, a person with knowledge of the talks said.
“We have charged this individual and have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided evidence we collected, as we do in any referral,” Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement, said in an emailed statement, referring to the company’s rules against insider trading.
A spokesperson for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the agency could not “confirm or deny an investigation.” Perez could not immediately be reached for comment. ABC News earlier reported the incident.
Prediction markets allow people to wager on matters as varied as state elections, World Cup matches and who will win on “Love Island.” The companies have attracted billions of dollars in trades, but their popularity has raised concerns about whether they violate state gambling laws and are being manipulated by those with insider information.
In April, three political candidates were found trying to bet on their own races. In June, federal authorities said they were investigating whether former Rep. George Santos had made a bet about attending Trump’s State of the Union address.
In March, the White House warned staff against using insider information to place bets on prediction markets, just weeks before federal prosecutors charged an Army Special Forces soldier with using classified information to bet on the capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, on Polymarket.
Trump is set to give a primetime address Thursday about election security and voting machines. On Kalshi, users are betting he will say “Save America Act,” “fraud,” and “Iran” more than three times, among other phrases and topics.
In a press briefing Thursday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that she had talked to Trump about reports that his teleprompter operator had been making money off his speeches on prediction markets and that he had called it a “disgrace.”
“This individual will no longer be here,” she said. “That was a decision by the president.”
Leavitt was also asked if other members of the White House staff were suspected of using inside information to make money on prediction markets. “Not to my knowledge,” she said.
She added, “There are very strict ethical requirements by all staffers and officials here at the White House” against such conduct.
Read more New law puts question to N.H. voters: Should a property tax cap apply to your local schools?
Shawn McCreesh contributed reporting.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Post Comment