Kalshi Gives George Santos Lifetime Ban Over Self-Related Bets

Former US congressman George Santos has received the first lifetime ban issued by prediction-market platform Kalshi, which also fined him $71,356. Kalshi announced the penalty after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Santos of trading contracts linked to whether he would attend Donald Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year. The agency alleges that Santos initially bought contracts predicting he would miss the speech as bad weather threatened his trip to Washington. According to the CFTC, Santos later posted social media updates indicating that he intended to attend. Regulators say those posts increased the value of contracts tied to the opposite outcome, allowing Santos to sell for a profit. The agency concluded that he had traded on an event he could partly influence himself. A Kalshi spokeswoman said Santos’s failure to fully cooperate with the company’s internal investigation led to a permanent suspension rather than a temporary ban. Santos responded on X by thanking Kalshi for the decision and questioning how long the platform would continue operating. The lifetime suspension comes in addition to a separate CFTC settlement. Santos agreed in July to pay more than $35,000 without admitting wrongdoing and was barred from trading on any platform for three years, according to his attorney. Santos was expelled from the House in December 2023 after an ethics investigation found substantial evidence that he had defrauded donors, misrepresented his finances and fabricated much of his biography. He later pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and identity theft charges and received a sentence of more than seven years in prison. The source reports that he served less than three months before President Trump commuted the sentence. Kalshi also imposed shorter bans and fines on several other people accused of wagering on their own political campaigns. Laurie Buckhout received a three-year ban and a $2,590 fine; former Planet Fitness president Ben Midgley was fined $5,434.30; and Diamond Resorts founder Stephen Cloobeck received a roughly $31,770 fine. Each received a three-year ban. The decision arrives as Santos seeks to rebuild his finances and public profile. He is scheduled to appear on the latest season of Fox’s “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” and has been selling paid video messages through Cameo. He has said he does not plan to run for public office again for at least a decade.