Ex-White House Aide Fined Over Trump Speech Betting Scheme

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator, to pay $172,539 after finding he exploited advance access to President Trump's speeches to profit on prediction-market bets tied to specific words and phrases he knew Trump would say. According to the CFTC, Perez must return $107,539 in ill-gotten profits, pay an additional $65,000 civil penalty, and is barred from trading for three years. The case underscores growing regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets, which have exploded in popularity, and raises questions about insider access to presidential communications. The CFTC's action signals that regulators intend to treat betting markets tied to political events with the same seriousness as traditional financial markets when insider information is involved.