Kalshi bans former politician George Santos for life

Prediction market platform Kalshi has permanently banned former Congressman George Santos from the platform, the first lifetime ban it has ever issued. Santos allegedly took large positions on a market tied to his presence at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, then made misleading statements about that presence to influence contract prices, ultimately earning around $18.000. Kalshi is also imposing a fine of more than $70.000.

In brief:

• Kalshi has issued George Santos a lifetime trading ban for market manipulation around Trump’s State of the Union address. NPR reports.
• Santos earned around $18.000 by betting that he would not attend the speech, after making misleading public statements.
• Regulator the CFTC previously fined a former White House staffer $172.000 for similar practices.

Santos refused to cooperate with investigation

Kalshi announced that Santos did not cooperate with the platform’s internal investigation. According to the company, that is the reason for the lifetime ban. Four other recent cases on the platform led only to temporary suspensions, because the traders involved did cooperate with the investigation.

Santos was expelled from the US Congress in 2023 following a series of fraud and deception scandals. With his exclusion from Kalshi, the platform says it is sending a clear signal about how it handles abuse of its markets.

CFTC also takes action against former White House staffer

The Santos case does not stand alone. According to the US commodities regulator CFTC, Gabriel Perez, a former teleprompter operator at the White House, must pay a total of $172.000 for insider trading. Through his role, Perez had access to presidential speeches before they were delivered, and used that information between December 2025 and February 2026 to trade in so-called presidential mention contracts on a prediction market platform, earning more than $107.500.

The CFTC is also imposing a three-year trading ban on Perez. He receives a reduction on the civil penalty because he fully cooperated with the investigation. The regulator has expressed its appreciation for Kalshi’s cooperation in this matter.

Broader crackdown on abuse of prediction markets

The actions against Santos and Perez fit within a broader industry movement to curb abuse of prediction market platforms. Competitor Polymarket is also said to be actively working to keep malicious traders out of markets around midterm elections in the United States.

Prediction markets have attracted significant attention in recent years, in part because they are often more accurate than traditional polls around major political and social events. That simultaneously makes the platforms attractive to those looking to exploit informational advantages, which increases the pressure on enforcement and oversight.