🇺🇸 Next-Level Insider Trading: Trump’s Teleprompter Operator Cleared $100,000 Betting on Presidential Speeches!
The prediction markets industry has just hit one of its most bizarre and high-profile scandals yet. Gabriel Perez, a longtime teleprompter operator for Donald Trump since the 2016 campaign, has been suspended and is currently under investigation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Leveraging his unique, early access to the official speech drafts before they were delivered live, the staffer—who pulled a regular annual salary of $175,000—decided to "monetize" his insider knowledge on the regulated U.S. prediction platform Kalshi.
Here is exactly how the scheme worked and how the operator got caught:
The Mention Markets: On Kalshi and similar Web3-adjacent prediction platforms, thousands of dollars are routinely traded on whether a politician will utter specific words or phrases during a public address (such as a State of the Union or a major rally).
The Ultimate Insider Edge: Having the final, approved speech drafts with Trump's last-minute edits, Perez placed heavily biased bets across more than a dozen addresses over a three-month span, clearing roughly $100,000 in pure profit.
Caught Red-Handed Mid-Speech: The most wild detail of the investigation reveals that the operator exposed himself by trying to urgently cancel or alter his active bets right in the middle of live broadcasts. This happened whenever Trump began to ad-lib or accidentally skipped specific lines that Perez had already loaded heavy money onto.
⚖️ The Fallout: Kalshi's internal security systems quickly flagged the anomalous trading patterns, instantly freezing the staffer's account (where over $90,000 in profits are currently locked) and forwarding the data to federal regulators. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the incident "a disgrace," while Perez is currently attempting to negotiate a civil settlement with the CFTC to avoid criminal charges.
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