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Trump Teleprompter Operator Ordered to Pay $172K in CFTC Settlement

By jili tutorial · September 1, 2026

Former Trump Teleprompter Operator Settles with CFTC for $172K Over Insider Trading

Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator for President Donald Trump, has agreed to pay over $172,000 as part of a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for using confidential information to profit from prediction markets.

How the Insider Trading Scheme Worked

According to a CFTC order, Perez traded on 39 out of 43 “Trump mention” contracts, generating more than $107,000 in profits. His role as a technical adviser and teleprompter operator gave him access to President Trump’s prepared remarks approximately one hour before they were delivered publicly.

Perez opened his account on the prediction market platform Kalshi on December 8, 2025, and focused almost entirely on sports and Trump-related markets. His trades involved contracts tied to major presidential events, including:

During a voluntary interview, Perez admitted that he would review the prepared speech text and then purchase either a “Yes” or “No” contract based on specific words or phrases that were expected to be mentioned. On one occasion, he changed his position after noticing that Trump had skipped or deviated from a portion of the prepared remarks containing a word on which Perez had already traded.

Settlement Terms and Cooperation Discount

The CFTC order requires Perez to:

Notably, Perez received a substantially reduced civil penalty due to what the CFTC described as “extraordinary cooperation.” He voluntarily submitted to an interview almost immediately and provided relevant documents. This cooperation resulted in approximately a 40% reduction in his penalty, exceeding the standard 25% reduction available under the agency’s enforcement cooperation policy.

CFTC’s Regulatory Findings

The CFTC determined that the White House information Perez obtained through his employment was confidential. Federal ethics rules clearly prohibit government employees from using nonpublic information for private financial gain. After reports emerged that he had profited more than $100,000 from insider trading, Perez was placed on administrative leave and subsequently left federal government service.

Growing Wave of Prediction Market Enforcement Actions

The Perez settlement is part of a broader crackdown by federal regulators on insider trading in prediction markets. In July, the CFTC ordered former U.S. Representative George Santos to pay approximately $35,000 after finding he manipulated a Kalshi market tied to whether he would attend Trump’s State of the Union address. Santos was required to disgorge $17,569.98 and pay a $17,500 penalty.

Recent High-Profile Cases

The agency has brought two major insider trading cases involving Polymarket this year:

April 2024: The CFTC sued U.S. Army servicemember Gannon Ken Van Dyke, alleging he used classified information about a U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to generate more than $404,000 in profits.

May 2024: The CFTC charged Google employee Michele Spagnuolo with allegedly using nonpublic information about Google’s 2025 Year in Search results to make approximately $1.2 million trading related contracts on Polymarket.

Upcoming Enforcement Actions

Reports emerged last week that federal authorities are preparing a new batch of insider trading cases, including potential charges against a U.S. servicemember and an employee at KPMG, the global accounting and consulting firm. These could be filed as early as this fall.