Gabriel Perez, who operated teleprompters at the White House, has been ordered to pay over $172,000 after using advance knowledge of President Trump's remarks to place bets on a prediction market platform.

A former White House teleprompter operator has faced regulatory action for trading on confidential information obtained through his employment. Gabriel Perez used private knowledge of President Donald Trump's speeches to place wagers on Kalshi, a prediction market platform that allows users to bet on real-world events, between December 2025 and February 2026, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The CFTC determined that Perez's actions constituted misappropriation of information that violated his fiduciary obligations. Under a settlement announced Friday, Perez was ordered to surrender $107,539.02 in profits and pay an additional $65,000 civil penalty. He has also been barred from trading for three years. The regulator reduced the penalty citing Perez's "exemplary cooperation" during the investigation.

Kalshi identified the suspicious trading activity through unusual patterns in so-called "mention markets," where bettors wager on whether specific words or phrases will be spoken during public addresses. The platform's investigation led it to determine the trader was a federal employee managing White House teleprompters, which prompted the company to report the conduct to authorities.

Following the discovery, former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced in July that Perez had been placed on unpaid leave and would not return to his position. The White House has not yet issued a public statement regarding the CFTC settlement.