Santos was found to have manipulated trades on a prediction market platform related to whether he would attend President Trump’s State of Union address in February
Former New York Congressman George Santos has been fined and given a three-year trading ban from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for manipulating trades on Kalshi.
The CFTC announced an order filing and settling charges against Santos for engaging in manipulative activity in an event contract – whose underlying event Santos controlled – designed to affect the price of the swap.
Under the order, Santos must disgorge the profits he made from his unlawful trading totalling $17,570 and pay a civil monetary penalty of $17,500.
Santos agreed to a cease and desist from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. A three-year trading ban has also been imposed on Santos.
The order found that between February 12 and 25, Santos traded a contract titled: “Who will attend the State of the Union?” and more specifically, traded on whether he would attend the 2026 State of the Union or not.
While buying and selling positions in this market, Santos posted on social media about his plans to attend or not attend the State of the Union.
According to the CFTC, Santos made a series of material misrepresentations and omissions about whether he would attend the State of the Union in his social media posts.
After these posts, the State of the Union contract prices moved in a direction that was favourable to Santos’ positions, which allowed him to make over $17,500.
After identifying the suspicious activity, Kalshi froze Santos’ account and forwarded the case to both the CFTC and the Department of Justice (DOJ), each of which opened separate investigations.