A former White House teleprompter operator accused of exploiting advance access to Donald Trump’s prepared remarks to place wagers on his speeches has been ordered to surrender more than $100,000 in winnings and pay a $65,000 penalty.
Gabriel Perez will also be barred from trading for three years under a settlement announced Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC.
Perez was put on unpaid leave from his White House role after reports surfaced alleging that he used his position to bet on Kalshi prediction markets tied to what the president would say.
According to the CFTC, Perez earned $107,500 on prediction markets by wagering on specific words and phrases expected to appear in Trump’s speeches between December 2025 and February 2026.
‘In his position, Perez had access to presidential speeches prior to those speeches being delivered and Perez misappropriated that information – in breach of his duty of trust and confidence,’ the commission said in a statement.
Regulators ordered Perez to give back the full amount of his profits and pay the $65,000 civil fine, noting that the penalty had been reduced in recognition of what the agency described as his ‘exemplary cooperation.’
The breach was publicly acknowledged during a July 16 press briefing by Karoline Leavitt, who has since left her role as White House press secretary.
Pressed repeatedly by reporters in a crowded briefing room, Leavitt said Trump viewed the episode as ‘deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace,’ making clear the president saw the matter as a personal betrayal.
Gabriel Perez, the ex-White House teleprompter operator who was alleged to have used his insider knowledge to bet on Kalshi, has been ordered to turn over $100,000 in profits and pay a $65,000 fine
Perez also faces a three-year trading ban following the agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Friday
Perez was a key technical assistant who has managed Trump’s teleprompter scripts since his first presidential campaign in 2016.
He was accused of exploiting his early access to upcoming speech drafts to place highly lucrative wagers on Kalshi’s ‘Mentions’ market, according to federal watchdogs at the CFTC.
The platform allows users to bet on whether specific words, phrases, or topics will be spoken during major public addresses.
Suspicious trading activity flagged by Kalshi itself sparked an investigation into Perez’s activities over a busy three-month window.
Investigators reportedly found that he had wagered on more than a dozen presidential events, including Trump’s December primetime address, a January appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and a Medal of Honor ceremony in March.
At the podium, Leavitt initially stumbled when describing Perez’s current employment status, saying he had been placed on ‘paid administrative leave,’ however, she quickly corrected herself.
She clarified that the administrative leave is unpaid, saying, ‘To be very clear, that was a decision by the President’ and adding flatly that ‘this individual will no longer be here.’
When asked if other administration officials were suspected of placing similar bets using privileged information, Leavitt responded: ‘Not to my knowledge, not that I’ve been made aware of.’
Perez was a key technical assistant who has managed Trump’s teleprompter scripts since his first presidential campaign in 2016
Perez cleans the teleprompter before President Donald Trump speaks at the Future Investment Initiative Institute’s summit, March 27, 2026, in Miami Beach
She maintained that the scandal was the result of a rogue actor bypassing existing protocols rather than a systemic failure of White House security or ethics.
Leavitt insisted that the White House has always maintained strict rules, saying: ‘There are very strict ethical guidelines here in the White House that explicitly state not to do this, and the White House Counsel’s office makes that clear to all of us who sign up to work in government on behalf of the President.’
She noted that Perez simply chose to ignore those standards, adding that ‘this individual unfortunately violated the plan, and therefore he’s paying the consequences.’
According to the White House Press Secretary, the mechanism for catching such behavior worked exactly as intended once the betting platform caught on.
She emphasized that Kalshi notified the CFTC of suspicious activity.
‘They investigated that, identified the individual, and he will now no longer be working at the White House,’ she said.
Our News Outlet has reached out to the White House and Kalshi for comment.
