Former U.S. Congressman George Santos has reached a settlement with the CFTC over manipulating the Kalshi market, agreeing to pay $35,100 and a three-year trading ban

Former U.S. Congressman George Santos has reached a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to the order, Santos must return $17,569.98, pay a civil penalty of $17,500, and is prohibited from trading on any CFTC-registered entity for three years.

The CFTC found that Santos made misleading public statements and significant omissions when trading event contracts on the prediction market platform Kalshi related to whether he would attend President Donald Trump's State of the Union address. Santos did not admit to the factual findings or conclusions in the order. Trading records show that Santos opened an account on February 11 and only traded that contract, first buying the Yes contract and profiting $3,448.43, then continuing to publicly state he would attend after flights and trains were canceled, and buying the No contract, ultimately profiting $14,390.57 from that position. Kalshi stated it had detected the related activities, froze the account, and provided evidence to the CFTC.