The prediction-market exchange Kalshi has permanently prohibited former Rep. George Santos from accessing the platform after establishing “reasonable cause to believe” that he participated in insider trading.
The lifetime ban—the first time Kalshi has ever imposed such a penalty on a user—comes after the company investigated the former New York Republican Congressman for allegedly placing bets on the prediction market platform over whether he was going to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 24.
“As a person capable of influencing the outcome of the underlying event, Santos was prohibited from trading in this market” under Kalshi’s exchange rules, the company said in a statement. But, the company alleged, Santos “placed a series of large trades in a market where the underlying contracts depended upon his own attendance at the event” from Feb. 2 to 25. Kalshi added that Santos made “a series of public statements regarding his attendance at the event in an attempt to influence the price of Yes and No contracts, respectively,” and that some of those statements were “false or misleading.” On Kalshi, users can trade “Yes” or “No” on whether they think something will happen in the future.
Santos said on social media ahead of Trump’s State of the Union address in February that he was going to be at the event, but ultimately did not attend.
“The Compliance Department found that Santos made these statements with the intent to manipulate the price of the Yes or No contracts that he intended to purchase. Ultimately, these statements did in fact manipulate the price of said contracts,” Kalshi alleged. “Furthermore, The Department found that Santos materially benefited from his trading activity, profiting $17,839.57 in the Target Markets.”
In addition to permanently banning Santos from Kalshi, the company also levied a fine of $71,356 against him.
Santos responded to the news on Monday, saying in a post on X: “Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.”
In another post on X, Santos alleged that Kalshi “violates its own notices and deadlines,” accusing the company of giving him a 30-day notice on Aug. 7 but announcing the lifetime ban ahead of the deadline.
Robert DeNault, head of enforcement at Kalshi, said on social media that the company was temporarily suspending other individuals over allegations of insider trading. He added, though, that Santos was the only person who didn’t cooperate with Kalshi’s investigation into the alleged violations.
Kalshi’s penalties against Santos come after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined the former Congressman more than $35,000 in July related to trading on his attendance at Trump’s State of the Union address. The commission alleged that Santos engaged “in manipulative activity in an event contract — whose underlying event Santos controlled — designed to affect the price of the swap.” Santos didn’t admit to the allegations, but he agreed to pay the penalties.
Santos, who was expelled from the House in 2023, was sentenced in April 2025 to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and identity theft. But in October, Trump announced that he had commuted Santos’ sentence, and Santos was released after serving less than three months.
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