According to the Associated Press, on August 28 local time, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a settlement agreement. It was revealed that former White House speech processor operator Perez used internal information to place bets on the trading platform Kalshi. He was ordered to surrender more than $100,000 in illegal profits and pay a fine of $65,000.
The settlement also stipulates that Perez is subject to a three-year trading ban. The committee found that between December 2025 and February 2026, Perez profited $107,500 from betting on words that were likely to appear in Trump's speech during the trading market.
The committee issued a notice stating: “Pere’s position had access to the president’s speech draft that had not yet been published. He stole this information, violating his duty to maintain confidentiality.”
Perez was required to return all of his illegal gains, and also pay a civil penalty of $65,000. The committee stated that the fine had been reduced because he “fully cooperated with the investigation.”
Sources revealed that in addition to his February State of the Union address, investigators also found that Perez placed bets on Trump’s speeches over a period of three months, involving more than a dozen speeches. These speeches included one important speech in December last year, a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, and a speech at a Medal Ceremony in March.
Sources also said that in some cases, when Trump temporarily skipped certain parts of his speech, Perez would withdraw some of his bets while the speech was still going on.
Several US government officials revealed to CBS in April that as early as March, the White House Office of Management and Administration had sent letters to White House staff, prohibiting them from using non-public information to place bets on forecasting trading platforms.
A spokesperson for the Kalshi platform stated in July that after the platform's monitoring system detected that Pere's trading behavior deviated from normal buying and selling patterns, they immediately investigated his transactions and froze his account. More than $90,000 in profits within the platform was locked up.
After completing the internal investigation, Kalshi transferred the case to the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A spokesperson for the platform said that the platform has been cooperating with the commission's work for several months.
Since Trump ran for president in 2016, Perez has been operating the microphone for him, making him one of the few people who were aware of the content of Trump's speeches in advance. In January 2025, after Trump took office, Perez became a technical advisor to the White House office.
On July 16th, when details of the case were exposed, White House Press Secretary Reeve stated that Trump considered such behavior "shameless," and therefore decided personally to grant Perez an unpaid administrative leave. This incident is "regrettable" and constitutes a "scandal."
