By Jarrett Renshaw

Aug 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday ordered former ‌White House teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez to ‌pay $172,539 for using advance access to President Donald Trump's speeches to ​make illegal trades on a prediction-market platform.

Perez must repay $107,539.02 in profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty under a settlement with the CFTC. He also agreed ‌to a three-year trading ⁠ban and to cease and desist from further violations of the Commodity Exchange ⁠Act and CFTC regulations.

The CFTC said Perez traded presidential "mention market" contracts on Kalshi between December 2025 and ​February 2026 ​while working at the ​White House. The contracts ‌are event contracts that pay out based on whether a president uses specific words or phrases in speeches.

Perez could not immediately be reached for comment. He was put on unpaid leave and is ‌no longer working for the ​federal government.

Perez had access to ​Trump's speeches before ​they were delivered and used that material, ‌nonpublic information to trade the ​contracts for ​his personal benefit, the CFTC said.

The agency said Perez's $65,000 penalty represented a substantial discount because ​of his "exemplary cooperation" ‌with the investigation.

The CFTC also credited KalshiEX ​with assisting in the matter.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; ​Editing by Cynthia Osterman)