Investigation of a former congressman who made a profit on a betting site

Last February, four months after his release from federal prison, former Republican Congressman George Santos took to social media to express his enthusiasm for attending US President Donald Trump’s upcoming State of the Union address.

Santos said, in a video clip he posted on the “X” platform, the day before the president delivered his speech: “I will be present in the spectators’ balcony during the State of the Union address.”

At the time, traders on prediction site Calcci were placing millions of dollars in bets on who would attend, and the video Santos posted to confirm his attendance led to a sharp rise in bets, but he did not attend. “Watching the State of the Union address from a television screen at the airport was not part of the plan,” Santos wrote in a blog post on “X,” using a slang term that more crudely expresses his “bad luck.”

He published the message while Trump was giving his speech, which led to a decrease in the value of bets on the Calcci website.

What Santos did not mention is that he had already bet on “Calce” that he would not attend the State of the Union address, according to three people with direct knowledge of his dealings who were not allowed to speak publicly, and they say that Santos misled public opinion, and made a profit from this misinformation amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. Calci finally discovered Santos’ deals, froze his account, and referred the case to the Trading Commission and the Ministry of Justice at the end of last week, which opened investigations into Santos, according to two people familiar with the investigations who were not allowed to speak publicly.

When contacted by NPR, Santos said, “Well, this is news to me,” in a question about the ongoing investigation into insider trading into his activities on the Calcci platform.

When asked if he had an account on the “Kalshi” platform, the former congressman replied: “I do not say yes, and I do not say no.”

He added that the co-founder of Calci, Luana Lopez Lara, is a “Brazilian citizen” whom he knows personally, and said that he would contact her to confirm whether an investigation had been opened into the matter.

Santos, 37, is deliberating about his own moves in the wake of one of the most dramatic downfalls in modern political history.

A former member of Congress from New York State ran for office after making a series of lies and slander about his personal life.

Among them is that he graduated from Baruch College among the top in his class. He also said his mother was working in the South Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks, and stories about his and his mother’s academic performance turned out to be false.

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