Was information about the White House press secretary appointment leaked? Prediction site Kalshi: “Investigation launched into suspicious trades”

[Financial News]  

Prediction site Kalshi has launched an investigation related to U.S. President Donald Trump’s appointment of Katie Zacharia, who was not among the leading contenders for White House press secretary.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 9th (local time) that Kalshi had detected a series of suspicious trades related to news of the White House press secretary appointment and had launched an investigation.
Kalshi confirmed that it is investigating a series of trades on its platform surrounding predictions that President Trump would appoint Zacharia, a conservative broadcast commentator.
Around 2 p.m. Eastern time that day, several media outlets, including The New York Times (NYT), began reporting that Zacharia had been tapped as the next White House press secretary. In connection with this, at least three trades on Kalshi were found to have been small but well-timed bets that correctly predicted the news and earned substantial profits.
According to the WSJ’s analysis, a $19 bet was placed at 10:43 p.m. the previous night. It would yield a net profit of $1,896 when the market closes. Two other bets, for $74 and $80, were placed at 1:41 p.m. on the 9th. When the bets paid off, they earned $3,689 and $4,023, respectively. The $19 bet had a 105-fold payout, while the $74 and $80 bets each had a payout of about 50 times the stake.
Although Zacharia briefly served as a spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security, the broadcast commentator was not a leading contender for White House press secretary. On Kalshi’s betting platform, the probability that Zacharia would become press secretary was estimated at only about 1% for several days, up until shortly before reports of the appointment began to appear.
Trump officially confirmed that afternoon that he had tapped Zacharia to be the next White House press secretary.
The White House is facing allegations that its employees are profiting from information obtained in advance. Teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez, who operated the text the president reads during speeches, was fired after it emerged that he had made more than $100,000 from betting on presidential speeches.
The White House has previously sent employees a warning not to use nonpublic information for personal gain, as a series of remarkably well-timed bets related to the war in Iran continued.

[email protected] Song Gyeong-jae Reporter