Key Takeaways
- Kalshi permanently banned George Santos and imposed a $71,356 penalty, effective Aug. 28.
- The CFTC’s July order formally credited Santos’s cooperation in its investigation.
- Four others were banned three years each; Kalshi says they cooperated.
Disagreements and Social Media Spats
Kalshi’s Compliance Department permanently suspended George Santos from direct or indirect access to the platform and imposed a $71,356 penalty. The notice cites six rule violations, finding he profited $17,839.57.
It is the first lifetime ban in the company’s history, the Wall Street Journal reported based on a statement from a Kalshi spokeswoman. A representative told NOTUS by email that Santos had “evaded discussions” with the compliance department, and that he can appeal both the ban and the penalty to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The federal regulator reached the opposite conclusion. Its July 31 order, which Santos settled for $35,069.98 and a three-year trading ban, states that the commission recognizes his cooperation in the underlying investigation and that it assisted in the swift resolution of the matter. The same order requires him to cooperate with the commission, any other government agency, and any self-regulatory organization. This category includes Kalshi, too, as a designated contract market.
Santos rejected the decision publicly, calling Kalshi an unserious company on X that violates its own notices and deadlines, and saying it had given him a 30-day notice on Aug. 7 before announcing the penalty (the notice took effect 21 days after that date). He also wrote, “Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform,” adding, “let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.” The former congressman did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press about the ban.
The cooperation finding appears nowhere in the Santos notice’s findings section. The two documents also disagree on when the trading began. Kalshi places it between Feb. 2 and Feb. 25. The CFTC order finds Santos opened his account on Feb. 11 with $1,000 and made his first trade the following day, accumulating 30,874 Yes contracts before reversing into 23,855 No contracts. Nine days of Kalshi’s window predate the account.
When Santos discussed the controversy on his podcast in March, he said some people lost money, and others made unexpected money, and that it showed how fragile these markets are. Kalshi had priced his attendance near 75% on the eve of the speech before he failed to appear.
The prediction market also handed three-year suspensions to Stephen Cloobeck, fined $31,770 over roughly $10,000 in contracts on his aborted California gubernatorial run, and Ben Midgley, fined $5,434.30 over less than $1,000 tied to his Maine primary bid. Both notices state expressly that the trader cooperated. Laurie Buckhout, the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 1st District, received a three-year ban and a fine of about $2,589. Each was charged under a single rule barring trading by anyone who can influence a contract’s outcome.
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