Kalshi announced it has imposed a lifetime ban on former U.S. Representative George Santos and levied a $71,356 penalty after its compliance team found reasonable cause to believe he engaged in unlawful trades. The disciplinary filing released by the firm details the decision to prohibit Santos from any future participation on its exchange.
Kalshi’s investigation began after the company detected unusual activity in Santos’s account and, in June, referred the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice. Unnamed sources told NPR that Santos placed bets on the platform predicting he would not attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. He posted on X a day before the speech saying he would be at the Capitol, but on the day of the event he announced he would watch from an airport TV, calling the change “not part of the plan.”
Santos later settled a separate DOJ inquiry with a $35,000 payment, asserting he had a genuine intention to attend the speech and that no market manipulation occurred. In a March podcast he acknowledged that some market participants lost money on the State of the Union bets and described the markets as “fragile.”
Santos was convicted of wire fraud, identity theft and other charges in 2024 and sentenced to 87 months in prison. He served 84 days before President Donald Trump commuted his sentence in October. Trump praised Santos on Truth Social, calling him a “rogue” who showed the courage, conviction, and intelligence to always vote Republican.
