DOJ opens investigation into George Santos for insider trading on Kalshi

The recently-incarcerated former congressman allegedly placed bets on himself, then acted to ensure he won.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have opened investigations into former congressman George Santos regarding alleged insider trading, according to NPR . The alleged scheme was both ridiculous and brazen, a hallmark of Santos .

Here's how it reportedly went down. Santos allegedly gamed the betting market Kalshi by making a video indicating he would be attending President Trump's State of the Union address back in February. "I'm going to be there for the State of Union in the gallery, guys," he said in a video originally posted to X .

Betters on Kalshi and Polymarket had been having a field day predicting who would attend the SOTU address. The Santos video sent odds of his attendance soaring. This means that people who bet against his appearance would stand to make a pretty penny. You know where this is going.

He didn't show. "Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML," Santos wrote on X . He posted this as Trump spoke, so the odds he would appear at the address plummeted.

Watching SOTU from an airport tv was not part of the plan! FML 😡🤬

However, there was something he didn't say on X. Santos had allegedly placed bets on Kalshi that he wasn't going to attend, according to three people with direct knowledge of the trades who spoke to NPR . These sources say he made tens of thousands of dollars while stuck watching that airport TV. "FML" indeed.

Kalshi detected the trades, froze his account and referred the incident to the DOJ and the CFTC. The organizations haven't issued an update as to where these cases stand. Santos, for his part, played dumb and told NPR that he had no idea there even was an active probe into his conduct on Kalshi. "I'm not saying yes, I'm not saying no," he said when asked if he had a Kalshi account.