Ex-White House Teleprompter Operator Faces Penalties for Insider Trading
POLICY WIRE — Washington, USA — A former White House teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, has been mandated to surrender over $100,000 in earnings and pay a $65,000 fine as part of a settlement with...
POLICY WIRE — Washington, USA — A former White House teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, has been mandated to surrender over $100,000 in earnings and pay a $65,000 fine as part of a settlement with federal regulators. Perez was accused of leveraging insider information to place bets on the prediction market Kalshi.
The agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, disclosed on Friday, also imposes a three-year trading prohibition on Perez. He was placed on unpaid leave from his White House position following revelations that he utilized his role to wager on President Donald Trump’s speech content.
The White House has not yet commented on the settlement. However, a White House official confirmed in July that Perez is no longer in his position, though the specifics of his departure remain undisclosed.
Investigations revealed that Perez earned $107,500 on prediction markets by betting on specific words and phrases that would appear in Trump’s speeches from December 2025 to February 2026.
In his role, Perez had access to presidential speeches before they were delivered and he misappropriated this information, violating his duty of trust and confidence, stated a release from the commission.
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Perez has been instructed to return his profits in full, in addition to the $65,000 civil penalty. The commission noted that the penalty was reduced due to his “exemplary cooperation.”
On July 16, as details surfaced, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the situation as “unfortunate” and “a disgrace.”
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
