George Santos Ends His Kalshi Probe With $35K Deal

Disgraced former Congressman George Santos agreed on Friday to pay $35,000 to settle a federal investigation into his suspicious trades on the prediction marketplace Kalshi after he bet against his own plans to attend President Trump's State of the Union. The onetime Republican lawmaker from New York said he settled with the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission to "put this matter behind him," noting that he didn't admit to doing anything wrong, per the AP. "He chose a prompt, practical resolution, rather than protracted, costly litigation," Santos lawyer Joseph Murray said in a statement that Santos shared on X.

The commission said that Friday's settlement represents the more than $17,000 Santos earned from the unlawful trading, as well as a fine of $17,500. The agency also imposed a three-year trading ban on Santos. Kalshi, which had reported Santos to regulators, said it will also pursue its own enforcement action and work to reimburse traders if monetary penalties are recovered. Leading up to Trump's February speech, Santos had talked frequently about his plans to be in the crowd. But minutes into the speech, he posted on X to say that he'd been waylaid at the airport and couldn't make it to Capitol Hill.

Social media users called him out, noting that Kalshi had put the odds of Santos attending the address at close to 75%. Santos shrugged off the complaints at the time. "I guess people lost money," he said on his podcast in March. "Some people made unexpected money. That's to show you how fragile these markets are." But the federal probe into the Kalshi trading prompted rival online prediction platform Polymarket to cut ties with Santos in June. In his Friday statement, Santos' lawyer said his client had a "genuine intention" to attend the State of the Union, even booking a hotel and plane ticket before a winter storm scuttled the plans.

"Mr. Santos concealed neither his intention to attend, nor his change of plans to not attend the SOTU, from anyone," Murray said. "There was absolutely no intent to deceive any person, nor intent to manipulate any market." Santos was expelled from Congress and charged with federal wire fraud and identity theft charges as investigators probed how he funded his campaign. He pleaded guilty and served less than three months of a more than seven-year sentence before Trump granted him clemency last year.