An article summarized by Business Insider:
Former New York Congressman George Santos has become the first person to receive a lifetime ban from prediction market platform Kalshi. The company said Santos violated its trading rules by betting on whether he would attend President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union. Santos publicly claimed he planned to attend but ultimately did not show up. Kalshi concluded that he made those statements intentionally to manipulate the market while holding positions that benefited from his absence.
In addition to the permanent ban, Kalshi ordered Santos to pay a $71,356 penalty. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission had previously found that Santos made more than $17,500 from the trades and reached a separate settlement requiring him to pay more than $35,000 and stay off the platform for three years. Kalshi said Santos’ refusal to cooperate with its investigation contributed to the much harsher lifetime punishment.
The case adds to growing concerns about insider trading and market manipulation on prediction platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. Santos, who was expelled from Congress in 2023 and later convicted on wire fraud and identity theft charges before his prison sentence was commuted by Trump, is now at the center of another major controversy, this time involving the rapidly growing world of betting on political and real-world events.
