George Santos, pictured here as a member of the House of Representatives, was expelled from Congress in 2023. CQ Roll Call/Zuma
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced Friday that former congressman and current legend George Santos has been fined $35,000 for attempting to place bets on his own attendance of the State of the Union in February. He’s also been banned from the prediction-market platform Kalshi for 3 years.
According to the CFTC:
While buying and selling positions in this market, Santos posted on social media about his plans to attend or not attend the SOTU. In his social media posts, Santos made a series of material misrepresentations and omissions about whether he would attend the SOTU. After these posts, the SOTU contract prices moved in a direction that was favorable to Santos’ positions which allowed him to make over $17,500.
A day before the State of the Union, Santos said in a video he posted to X: “I’m going to be there for the State of Union in the gallery, guys.” He posted on Instagram asking his followers if he should wear a “bedazzled suit” or a more toned-down option. Then, he didn’t show up.
Santos was expelled from Congress in 2023 after he was charged with a litany of offenses that included identity theft and pilfering campaign funds. He was sentenced to prison for 87 months, though Donald Trump commuted his sentence and he was released after 84 days.
Santos’ lawyer, Joseph Murray, wrote in a statement that the former congressman held “no intent to deceive any person, nor intent to manipulate any market,” when he placed Kalshi bets on his own potential travel to the State of the Union. Murray added that Santos has settled with the CFTC and intends to “put this matter behind him.”
Santos, however, does not seem to have moved past this just yet: he has posted on X about Kalshi five times in the past 24 hours, calling it a predatory platform, demanding that its founder be deported, and threatening to have it “legislated out of existence.”
