The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Friday that it has settled a case involving former Rep. George Santos, who was facing an insider trading investigation by the Justice Department for betting on his own attendance to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year.
Santos has agreed to pay a $17,500 fine and repay the $17,569.98 he made on the bet, the CFTC announced. He also is barred from trading on prediction markets for three years.
In a statement, Joseph W. Murray, Santos’ attorney, said the former congressman agreed to resolve the CFTC’s inquiry to “put this matter behind him.” Santos admitted to placing the bet in question but maintains that the act does not amount to any wrongdoing, his lawyer added.
“He chose a prompt, practical resolution rather than protracted, costly litigation, and that choice should not be mistaken for an admission of any wrongdoing, because it is not one,” Murray said.
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In February — just four months after his sentence for committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft was commuted by Trump — Santos placed his first bet on Kalshi. The former congressman wagered that he would not be in attendance at the Capitol for the State of the Union address, despite publicly stating he would be there.
“I’m going to be there for the State of Union in the gallery, guys,” Santos said in a video he posted on X a day before the address.
Santos wasn’t the only person betting on who would be in attendance for the speech; people were placing bets worth millions of dollars on attendees, and Santos’ video confirming his attendance affected those bets. But in the end, he did not show up.
“Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML,” Santos wrote on X later that day.
Santos’ lawyers argue there was no wrongdoing by Santos because he did not hide “his intention to attend, nor his change of plans to not attend the SOTU, from anyone.”
“There was absolutely no intent to deceive any person, nor intent to manipulate any market,” Murray said in a statement following the settlement announcement.
According to NPR, three people with direct knowledge of Santos’ trades said he misled the public on purpose and profited based on that deception. Two sources told the outlet that when Kalshi detected Santos’ trades, it froze his account and referred the case to the CFTC and the DOJ.
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