George Santos was fined $35,000 and banned from Kalshi for 3 years after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said he tried to bet on his own attendance at the State of the Union in February. The action came on Friday and centers on social media posts that the agency said shaped the market around his plans.
The penalty reached beyond the fine. Santos made over $17,500 after contract prices moved in a direction favorable to his positions, and Joseph Murray said Santos had “no intent to deceive any person, nor intent to manipulate any market,” before saying he would “put this matter behind him.”
State of the Union posts
Santos’ trading sat alongside a public breadcrumb trail. A day before the State of the Union, he posted a video on X saying, “I’m going to be there for the State of Union in the gallery, guys.” He also posted on Instagram asking whether he should wear a “bedazzled suit” or a more toned-down option.
Those posts mattered because they were made while he was buying and selling positions tied to his own appearance. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the posts contained material misrepresentations and omissions about whether he would attend, and that the market moved after he posted them.
CFTC and Kalshi
The 3-year ban keeps Santos off Kalshi, the prediction-market platform at the center of the case. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the enforcement action covered his betting activity tied to the State of the Union contract and the gains he made from the price movement that followed his posts.
Joseph Murray later said Santos settled with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and planned to “put this matter behind him.” Santos, however, posted on X five times in the past 24 hours about Kalshi, calling it a predatory platform and saying he would push to have it “legislated out of existence.”
George Santos after Friday
The latest action adds a new penalty to a record that already includes Santos’ expulsion from Congress in 2023, an 87-month prison sentence, and his release after Donald Trump commuted that sentence following 84 days. Friday’s order leaves him barred from Kalshi for 3 years and under a $35,000 fine, with the dispute now shifting to his public campaign against the platform.
