The prediction market Kalshi announced on Monday it has issued a lifetime ban against former U.S. Representative George Santos. This marks the platform's first-ever lifetime ban.
Kalshi stated that Santos improperly manipulated contract prices by making public statements about his planned attendance at the State of the Union address earlier this year and then trading on that contract. The platform found that Santos made these statements with the intent to manipulate the price of contracts he intended to purchase, and that these statements did, in fact, influence the prices.
This action follows a previous regulatory investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which resulted in penalties against Santos including the disgorgement of his winnings and a $17,500 fine.
Santos, who represented New York's 3rd congressional district before his expulsion from the House of Representatives, commented on the ban via X, formerly Twitter, stating, "Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let's see how much longer you guys are around for."
In addition to Santos, Kalshi announced penalties against three other political candidates for violating its insider trading rules by wagering on their own races. These candidates include Ben Midgley, a Republican candidate for governor in Maine; Stephen Cloobeck, who briefly ran as a Republican for governor of California; and Laurie Buckhout, a Republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina.
Kalshi determined that these candidates qualified as decision-makers for the contracts related to their own races and had direct influence over the outcomes. The specific nature of their wagers was not detailed in the released documents.
Stephen Cloobeck, a real estate developer, purchased approximately $10,000 worth of contracts related to his candidacy. Under a settlement agreement, Kalshi suspended Cloobeck from accessing the platform for three years and imposed a financial penalty of $31,770.
Midgley and Buckhout wagered less than $1,000 each and faced penalties of a few thousand dollars. Both were also suspended from the platform for three years. Kalshi noted that all three candidates cooperated with its investigation.
Earlier this year, reports indicated that Kalshi had previously penalized three other political candidates for betting on their own electoral contests.