Prediction market startup Kalshi permanently bans ex-US lawmaker Santos from trading
Kalshi permanently banned former U.S. congressman George Santos from its platform on Monday and imposed a penalty of $71,356, citing insider trading.
The company said in a disciplinary action that its compliance department had found reasonable cause to believe the former lawmaker engaged in illicit trading.
The move comes as prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket have seen a rise in suspicious trading activity, presenting new compliance challenges as regulators and law enforcement intensify scrutiny of the growing sector.
Kalshi had reported Santos to the U.S. Department of Justice in June after detecting suspicious trading activity from his account on the platform, a source told Reuters at the time.
Santos was expelled from Congress over fraud and identity theft. U.S. President Donald Trump commuted his over-seven-year prison sentence last year.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
