Kalshi permanently banned former U.S. Rep. George Santos from its prediction-market exchange and imposed a $71,356 penalty after finding that he manipulated contracts tied to whether he would attend President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address. The penalty was four times the $17,839.57 profit cited in Kalshi’s notice. The exchange also suspended North Carolina Republican House candidate Laurie Buckhout for three years and fined her $2,589.96 after she bought less than $1,000 in contracts on her race against Democratic Rep. Don Davis. Stephen Cloobeck and Ben Midgley also received three-year bans for wagering on their own campaigns. Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Santos to disgorge $17,569.98, pay a $17,500 civil penalty and stop trading on CFTC-registered venues for three years; the differing Santos profit figures reflect separate calculations.