White House Puts Gabriel Perez on Leave Over $100,000 Trump Speech Bets
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Jul 16
White House Puts Gabriel Perez on Leave Over $100,000 Trump Speech Bets
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Jul 16
Summary
Gabriel Perez, a White House teleprompter operator since 2016, was put on unpaid leave and will no longer work there after allegations he bet on words in Trump speeches.
Kalshi said it detected unusual March trading in its “mention markets,” traced the account to a federal employee, froze more than $90,000 before withdrawal, and referred the activity to the CFTC.
The bets allegedly relied on inside knowledge of major addresses including the State of the Union, where contracts let users wager on whether Trump would say specific countries, economic terms or slogans.
Perez has been described as fully cooperative with the CFTC, while federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to open a criminal case and the agency would not confirm or deny an investigation.