Federal regulators have launched an investigation into President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator after allegedly earning more than $100,000 by placing bets on the president’s speeches on a prediction market.
Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has been operating Trump's teleprompter since 2016, is reportedly in talks with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to settle allegations that he used inside knowledge of President Trump’s statements.
According to sources familiar with the matter, prediction market Kalshi alerted the CFTC after bets placed on the platform’s “Mentions” market were flagged as suspicious.
"Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators," Kalshi's lead lawyer, Bobby DeNault, also confirmed. “We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided evidence we collected, as we do in any referral.”
Perez's Trade Patterns
According to the platform, the company’s surveillance team flagged trades on President Trump’s speeches that did not follow typical trading patterns.
Perez reportedly placed over a dozen bets on President Trump’s speeches within three months. These speeches include the State of the Union Address, a December 2025 primetime address, a speech at the World Economic Forum, and a speech during a Medal of Honor ceremony.
During certain times, investigators found that Perez would pull out of certain trades mid-speech when President Trump would skip over a section of his speech which included a word he had previously bet would be said.
Kalshi’s surveillance analysts used data gathered during the platform’s onboarding and monitoring process to discover that the account holder worked for the federal government as a teleprompter operator.
In response, the prediction market froze the account and nearly all of the profits gained from insider trade.
CFTC's Proposed Settlement
Sources who spoke with ABC News reveal that the CFTC and Perez have discussed terms that would direct the Trump aide to return his earnings and abstain from making similar trades.
