The White House placed a senior technical aide on unpaid leave Thursday after discovering he had used his access to President Trump's speeches to place winning bets on a prediction market, netting more than $100,000 in the process.
Gabriel Perez, who has operated Trump's teleprompter since 2016, reportedly wagered on the Kalshi prediction platform using advance knowledge of what the president would say during public addresses. The scheme unraveled when the platform's surveillance team detected suspicious betting patterns and reported them to federal regulators overseeing prediction markets.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the conduct "deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace," confirming that Trump had been briefed on the matter. She said Perez would be replaced for Thursday night's speech on election integrity and emphasized that the administration maintains "extremely strict ethical guidelines" regarding such violations.
Sources told ABC News that Perez earned more than $100,000 from the trades under investigation, though CNN reported the figure at over $90,000. Those profits have been frozen pending the federal inquiry. Government records show Perez earned $175,000 annually as a deputy assistant to the president and technical adviser.
The betting activity centered on Kalshi's "mentions" market, which allows participants to wager on whether specific words, topics, or phrases will appear in public speeches. According to sources familiar with the case, the unusual activity triggered Kalshi's compliance team to escalate the matter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
"Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators," Robert DeNault, Kalshi's head of enforcement, said in a statement.
The case arrives as the Justice Department pursues its first insider trading prosecutions tied to prediction markets. A special forces soldier faces charges over bets on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, while a Google employee has been accused of wagering on user search data. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Prediction market operators have scrambled to tighten controls as the platforms exploded in popularity. Kalshi and competitor Polymarket rushed to install new surveillance tools in March after two senators announced legislation that could severely restrict the industry. Both platforms have found support from the Trump-controlled CFTC, with Chair Michael Selig pledging to defend Kalshi in any legal battles against state-level restrictions.
The Perez case reflects growing concerns over insider trading abuse. Kalshi previously fined three political candidates for betting on their own election outcomes. Federal authorities are also investigating whether disgraced former Republican congressman George Santos engaged in insider trading on Kalshi by wagering on his attendance at a State of the Union address.
Author James Rodriguez: "This is the kind of scheme that could poison public confidence in both the White House and the prediction markets themselves."
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