George Santos, the former lawmaker who lied about his background, got expelled from Congress, and then became a convicted fraudster, is reportedly being investigated for insider trading.
The probe, NPR reported on Tuesday, centers on Santos’ comments about February’s State of the Union address and his alleged bets on Kalshi, a prediction market website.
On Feb. 23, a day before Donald Trump’s address to Congress, Santos posted a video on X in which he said he would attend. The odds on Kalshi that Santos would show up subsequently rose and remained relatively high. Its peak was 76 cents—meaning a wager of that amount would win $1. A “no” bet of 24 cents would thus carry much more value.
The following night, while Trump was speaking, Santos posted on X to reveal news he said he was angry about.
“Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML,” he wrote, adding a few emojis to reflect that sentiment.
But Santos’ stated anger was allegedly fabricated, just like his claim that he was Jewish, that his grandparents escaped the Holocaust, that he graduated with an MBA from New York University, and that his mother was in the World Trade Center’s South Tower during 9/11.
That’s because before Santos announced on X that he wasn’t in the Capitol to hear Trump’s speech, he used Kalshi to bet on what he already knew wouldn’t happen, three people with knowledge of his bets told NPR. Santos, they said, made tens of thousands of dollars.
Kalshi identified Santos’ trades and froze his account, a person familiar with the website’s investigation said. Kalshi then referred the matter to the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Both opened investigations into Santos’ activity.
At the time of Santos’ X post announcing his absence from the State of the Union, many X users accused him of market manipulation.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department, the CFTC, Kalshi, and Santos for comment.
When reached by NPR, Santos seemed surprised.
“Well, that’s news to me,” the 37-year-old said. When asked if he had a Kalshi account, Santos was elusive: “I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no.”
The person familiar with Kalshi’s investigation said that Santos has been avoiding the company’s requests for an interview.
In August 2024, Santos was sentenced to over seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Donald Trump commuted his sentence last October.
