The Department of Justice launched an investigation into disgraced ex-Rep. George Santos after he allegedly bet on his own appearance at President Trump’s State of the Union address in February.
Santos, the one-time New York lawmaker and New Jersey prison inmate, allegedly placed a bet on Kalshi that he wouldn’t attend Trump’s address to Congress, sources familiar with the trades told NPR.
The day before the Feb. 24 State of the Union, Santos announced in a video on X that he would “be there…in the gallery.”
He wound up skipping the entire event. During the president’s speech, Santos shared another post on X complaining about his apparent absenteeism.
“Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML,” Santos wrote.
The Kalshi market odds on the likelihood of Santos’ eleventh-hour appearance plummeted moments after Santos posted the update.
Kalshi eventually flagged Santos’ eyebrow-raising trades and froze his account. It referred the case to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the DOJ, a source told the outlet.
It’s unclear how much Santos bet, or what profit he yielded, but the sources alleged that he misled the public to bilk “tens of thousands of dollars.”
When reached by the outlet, Santos said the investigation was “news to [him].”
“I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no,” Santos said when asked if he had a Kalshi account.
Santos then bizarrely claimed that he personally knows Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara, though a source told the outlet that they have never interacted.
Even so, Santos insisted he would call Lara to ask about the investigation.
The Post reached out to Santos and the DOJ for comment.
Santos was released from FCI Fairton, a medium security prison in Fairfield Township, NJ, last October after President Trump commuted his 87-month prison sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
He had served less than three months in the slammer before he was freed.
Insider trading scandals have snared several other politicians this year.
In April, Kalshi suspended three congressional hopefuls – a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent – who bet on themselves in their respective races.
That same month, the White House warned staff against insider trading after several mystery gamblers made thousands of dollars in blitz trades on the Iran War dealings.
A coalition of Republican lawmakers – and two lone Democrats – are pushing to ban representatives, their families, and their staffers from participating in prediction markets and trading stocks.
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