Federal regulators are trying to reach a settlement with Gabriel Perez, a White House staffer who has operated President Trump's teleprompter since 2016, over alleged insider trading on a betting platform called Kalshi, according to a report published July 16, 2026 by NPR.

Perez's official title is technical assistant to the president. He is accused of making nearly $100,000 by betting on what the president would say in public speeches. Because Perez helped prepare those speeches, he would have known the words ahead of time. The alleged scheme centered on Kalshi's "mention markets," where users bet on whether the president will say specific words or phrases during an address.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, is the federal agency that oversees Kalshi. It is negotiating with Perez over his alleged betting activity. ABC News first reported the investigation. Kalshi's own monitoring systems caught unusual betting patterns on mention markets involving the president, and investigators determined the account holder was a federal employee. Robert DeNault, head of enforcement at Kalshi, confirmed that the company's surveillance team flagged the trades and referred them to the CFTC.

Kalshi froze about $90,000 of Perez's profits and banned him from the platform. The company also announced it is adding new security measures in response to the investigation, according to ABC News.

This is the first known case of a White House employee being investigated for allegedly using inside government information to profit on a prediction market, according to NPR.

In March 2026, White House staff received a memo warning them not to use nonpublic government information to place bets on Kalshi and Polymarket. The memo said it is a crime for anyone in the White House to "buy" or "sell" on prediction market sites, and that misuse of government information "will not be tolerated."

Betting on presidential remarks has grown substantially. Ahead of Trump's address to the nation on July 16, 2026, Kalshi traders had wagered more than $800,000 on what words the president would say.

The broader context here is the growing world of prediction markets and the special access that White House staff have to information before it becomes public. Prediction markets like Kalshi let users bet on political and economic events. Mention markets go a step further, letting users bet on specific words in a speech. That means anyone who has seen the speech in advance could have an edge over ordinary bettors.

Perez could face serious legal trouble. Using inside information to trade on Kalshi could be criminally prosecuted as wire fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering, according to NPR. The CFTC's interest in a settlement rather than an immediate criminal referral suggests the civil process is still playing out. Whether the Justice Department opens its own criminal investigation is a separate question.

The case also tests Kalshi's own systems for catching misconduct. The platform's monitoring did detect the unusual activity and refer it to the CFTC, and the company acted to freeze funds and ban the user. The new security measures Kalshi says it is adding will be closely watched by both regulators and competitors.

For White House ethics officials, the Perez matter may lead to stricter enforcement of existing rules. The March 2026 memo was clear about the criminal risks and the ban on using government information for prediction market gains. The fact that a staff member with direct access to presidential remarks was allegedly able to place bets on the content of those remarks, despite the memo, will raise questions about whether memos are enough or whether closer monitoring is needed.