A White House teleprompter operator used his position to win around $100,000 by placing bets on the prediction market Kalshi about what President Trump would say in his speeches, the company said on Thursday.
It was the latest accusation that someone had used inside information to make a profit on a prediction market like Kalshi and Polymarket, which have grown rapidly and transformed into cultural phenomena.
In this case, Kalshi said Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to Mr. 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 Mr. 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.
Mr. 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 spokeswoman for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the agency could not “confirm or deny an investigation.” Mr. Perez could not immediately be reached for comment. ABC News earlier reported the incident.
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