Former Congressman George Santos Pays $35,000 to Settle CFTC Trading Probe

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that former New York Representative George Santos has settled an unlawful-trading case involving a Kalshi prediction market that asked whether he would attend President Trump's State of the Union address. Santos allegedly bought a position betting he would not be present after publicly stating he would attend, causing the market price to shift and yielding him over $17,500 in profit.

The regulator deemed his actions manipulative, imposed a three-year ban on trading, and required a $35,000 payment covering both fines and the illicit gains. Santos’ lawyer claimed the congressman intended to go but was forced to stay away due to weather, insisting there was no deception or market manipulation. The settlement was reached to close the matter, with Santos not admitting any of the CFTC’s allegations. Kalshi’s enforcement head highlighted the case as an example of catching fraudsters through typical patterns of behavior.