Senators urge Trump administration to boost ethics training on insider trading
Source: NBC News
March 30, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT
Over 40 Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate signed a letter to top administration regulators and ethics officials on Monday asking for governmentwide training on insider trading in prediction markets. The letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of Government Ethics comes after weeks of increasing scrutiny regarding potential insider trading by government employees using prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi.
The letter highlights concerns that federal employees may have used insider knowledge to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit from trades relating to the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the length of White House press conferences. To date, no federal employee has faced federal charges related to insider trading on event-driven news.
“Given the exponential growth in prediction market trading, rising evidence suggesting possible governmental insider trading in prediction markets, and potential confusion surrounding existing law in this area, we ask that the CFTC and OGE issue guidance reminding federal employees of their existing legal obligation to refrain from using their insider governmental information to profit from prediction market trades,” the letter states.
The letter notes that federal employees are prohibited by the Commodities Exchange Act and the STOCK Act from entering into futures contracts or similar types of trades using nonpublic information they gain from their government postings. Prediction markets use these contract mechanisms to allow people to bet on whether certain events will happen. The CFTC oversees these types of contracts and is currently seeking public feedback about new regulations that might be required to confront the rise of prediction market betting.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/democrats-push-trump-admin-prediction-market-insider-trading-rcna265503
Link to Sen. Warren PRESS RELEASE - Warren, 40+ Lawmakers Push Regulators to Address Illegal Insider Trading in Prediction Markets
Link to LETTER (PDF) - https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_the_commodity_future_trading_commission_and_the_office_of_government_ethics_regarding_prediction_markets.pdf
They keep piling on the "Ethics Training" for the civil servants where the GS-1000 appointees and members of Congress get ZILCH.
I know I had required annual "Ethics" training, with threats about accepting "freebies" like a promotional mug from a conference that *might have had* a value greater than $25, meant sure fire fines/imprisonment/termination... and where if if I didn't take the course, I would get my computer access revoked.
Meanwhile Congress cashes in along with all the Executive Branch head honchos.
= new reply since forum marked as read
At least introduce a bill with bigger sharper teeth, or subpoena the feckless do-nothings who are supposed to be prosecuting this crap for a hearing where you rake them over the coals; do something, anything beyond a fucking letter.
traffic school?
We don't want to be too tough on them.