Signage is seen outside of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in Washington on Aug. 30, 2020. Andrew Kelly/Reuters
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday ordered a White House teleprompter operator to pay more than $172,000 after finding he used nonpublic information from his White House job to trade event contracts for personal gain.
Gabriel Perez must forfeit $107,539.02 in profits from the trades and pay a $65,000 civil monetary penalty. The penalty reflects a “substantial discount” under the Division of Enforcement’s new cooperation advisory because of Perez’s “exemplary cooperation” with the CFTC, the commission said. He also agreed to cease and desist from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. He also must adhere to a three-year trading ban.
According to the order, between December 2025 and February 2026, while working as a teleprompter operator for the White House, Perez traded presidential mention market contracts. Those are event contracts reflecting words or phrases the president might use during his speeches.
In his position, Perez had access to presidential speeches before those speeches were delivered. He misappropriated that information, officials said in the order, “in breach of his duty of trust and confidence,” to trade the contracts, generating over $107,500 in profits.
The settlement with Perez closes the CFTC’s action, and he is no longer working for the federal government.
Perez could not immediately be reached for comment.
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The agency also thanked financial exchange and prediction market KalshiEX for its assistance in the case, which traces back to earlier this year.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time that President Donald Trump was aware of a news report on the matter and had spoken with her about it.
“He believes it’s deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace,” Leavitt said at a press conference.
She added that the teleprompter operator was complying with the CFTC.
“The White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this, and as I just told you, this individual will no longer be here,” Leavitt told reporters. “The administrative leave is unpaid. To be very clear, that was a decision by the president. So I think that speaks for itself.”
Perez had operated the teleprompter for Trump since 2016.
