Kalshi issues George Santos a lifetime ban and $71,356 fine over suspicious trades
Prediction platform Kalshi has handed former U.S. congressman George Santos a lifetime ban and fined him $71,356 over allegations of insider trading.
According to a disciplinary filing released by the firm, its compliance team determined there was reasonable cause to conclude that the former lawmaker participated in unlawful trades.
The decision comes amid a surge in questionable transactions across prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, creating fresh oversight hurdles as law enforcement and regulators step up their focus on the expanding industry.
In June, Kalshi referred Santos to the U.S. Department of Justice following the discovery of unusual account activity, a source previously told Reuters.
Fresh out of prison for wire fraud and identity theft, Santos allegedly began a new scheme by fixing the odds on a bet of whether he would attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in February, unnamed sources told NPR at the time.
He posted on X a day before Trump’s speech saying that he would be at the U.S. Capitol for it. But the next day, he said he would instead be watching the speech from an airport TV, writing on X that it was “not part of the plan!”
Before his announcement, Santos had allegedly placed bets on Kalshi that he was not going to attend the State of the Union, NPR reported.
Santos was previously ousted from Congress following charges of identity theft and fraud. A federal judge in New York sentenced Santos to 87 months in prison for wire fraud and identity theft, believing the former congressman had no remorse for the campaign donors and voters he lied to and swindled out of money.
U.S. President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence after the 37-year-old former Republican congressman served just 84 days.
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He went on to praise Santos for having “the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
