NEW YORK — The Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are investigating former congressman George Santos for insider trading related to bets he placed on the prediction market platform Kalshi about his attendance at the 2026 State of the Union address. Kalshi detected the trades, froze Santos’ account, and referred the matter to both agencies.
In February 2026, Santos posted a video on X stating, "I'm going to be there for the State of the Union in the gallery, guys," one day before President Trump’s address. He did not attend the speech and instead posted during the event, "Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML." According to three people with direct knowledge of his trades who were not authorized to speak publicly, Santos placed bets on Kalshi that he would not appear at the address and profited in the tens of thousands of dollars from those trades.
When asked by NPR about the insider trading probe, Santos said, "Well, that's news to me." He declined to confirm whether he held a Kalshi account, responding, "I'm not saying yes, I'm not saying no." A person familiar with Kalshi’s investigation stated that Santos does not know Luana Lopes Lara, Kalshi’s co-founder, contradicting Santos’ claim that she is "a fellow Brazilian." Kalshi has reached out to Santos to interview him as part of its internal investigation, but he has dodged those requests.
Santos was released from federal prison in October 2025 after President Trump commuted his sentence. He had been serving more than seven years following convictions for wire fraud, money laundering, and stealing money from political donors.