Former lawmaker accepts three-year trading ban
Former U.S. Rep. George Santos agreed Friday to pay $35,000 to settle a federal investigation into prediction-market trades he made that bet against his own attendance at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.
The CFTC said Santos earned more than $17,000 from the unlawful trading and imposed a $17,500 fine, for a total settlement of $35,000. The agreement includes a three-year ban from trading on the platform.
Santos’s lawyer, Joseph Murray, said in a statement shared on social media platform X that his client settled to “put this matter behind him.” Murray said Santos “chose a prompt, practical resolution, rather than protracted, costly litigation, and that choice should not be mistaken for admission of any wrongdoing, because it is not one.”
Santos did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.