George Santos has become the first person permanently banned from prediction market Kalshi after the company found evidence the former New York congressman engaged in insider trading tied to his own attendance at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
Kalshi also fined Santos $71,356, according to the company.
Kalshi’s compliance department said it had “reasonable cause to believe” Santos engaged in improper trading in markets concerning his attendance at the February address. Santos placed bets on whether he would attend while publicly telling his social media followers that he planned to be there.
“Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform,” Santos wrote on social media Monday after the punishment was announced. “Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.”
Santos also accused the company of violating a 30-day notice he said it gave him earlier this month.
The former congressman began trading the State of the Union contract on Feb. 12, according to a Commodity Futures Trading Commission order. He initially bet that he would attend and repeatedly suggested publicly that he planned to do so.
On Feb. 23, Santos posted that he would “be there in the gallery,” then posted a video saying, “I’m going to be in the gallery.” Minutes later, he began building a position betting that he would not attend, according to the CFTC.
Santos ultimately skipped the address and made more than $17,500 from his trading.
The CFTC fined Santos $17,500 in July and ordered him to give up $17,569.98 in profits after finding that he engaged in manipulative activity “designed to affect the price of the swap.” He was also barred from certain trading for three years.
Kalshi said Santos was the only person among several traders disciplined Monday who did not cooperate with its investigation, contributing to the decision to permanently ban him.
Santos was expelled from Congress in 2023 and later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to more than seven years in prison before Trump commuted his sentence last year.
