Utah Prosecutors Charge KalshiEX, Mansour, Lopes Lara In 14-Count Case

The Utah Attorney General’s Office filed a 14-count criminal Information against prediction-market operator KalshiEX LLC and its co-founders, Chief Executive Officer Tarek Mansour and Chief Operating Officer Luana Lopes Lara, on October 28, 2026. The charges, built on 12 sports wagers that a state special agent placed undercover from Salt Lake and Davis counties in September 2026, include one count of pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony, and 12 counts of online gambling promotion, each a third-degree felony.

The Information was filed in the Third Judicial District Court, Salt Lake Department, Salt Lake County, and is captioned as a Co-Defendant Information (Summons) under AGO No. 9465862. Special Agent Scott Eggerman of the Attorney General’s Office signed the accompanying declaration of probable cause on October 28, 2026 at 12:41 PM, and Attorney General Derek Brown authorized the Information for presentment and filing the same day. Criminal Deputy Attorney General Stewart M. Young and Assistant Attorneys General Christopher White and Wesley R. Stapley appear as attorneys for the state. The document states it is based on evidence from the office’s College Drive Case Report 2026-493 and various witnesses including Eggerman.

Count 1 charges pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony under Utah Code §§ 76-17-407 and 76-2-204, covering conduct on or about September 13 through September 26, 2026 in Salt Lake and Davis counties. Counts 2 through 13 each charge online gambling promotion, a third-degree felony under § 76-9-1404, one count per wager. Count 14 charges general gambling promotion, a class A misdemeanor under § 76-9-1405(2) and (3)(a), alleging the company derived an economic benefit other than personal winnings from facilitating the wagers and aided the agent in completing them. Each count names KalshiEX as the defendant and invokes Utah’s corporate-liability provision, § 76-2-204(2), alleging the conduct was authorized, solicited, requested, commanded, undertaken, performed, or recklessly tolerated by the company’s board of directors or high managerial agents acting within the scope of their employment and on its behalf.

The Undercover Wagers

According to Eggerman’s declaration, he created an undercover Kalshi account on September 13, 2026 using an undercover name and an undercover Visa debit card, with a persona carrying a Utah residential address, a Utah phone number, and a bank account at a Utah-based banking establishment. Before each wager, he independently verified that his geolocation and public IP address indicated he was in Utah. Before the first wager, Kalshi required him to confirm his location using location services, and the declaration states he truthfully confirmed his Utah location. For each wager, Kalshi collected a fee that was deducted from the agent’s account balance.

The declaration itemizes 12 wagers placed between September 13 and September 24, 2026 on NFL, NCAA football, MLB, MLS, and NHL markets. On September 13, from Salt Lake County, the agent placed a $10.00 wager that the Dallas Cowboys would beat the New York Giants; the platform indicated a 34% chance for a payout and charged a $0.44 fee, and the agent lost $9.99 when the Cowboys lost. On September 14, again from Salt Lake County, he placed a $5.00 spread wager that the University of Utah would be ahead of Utah State by 27.5 points at the end of their game, at a 53% stated chance and a $0.16 fee; Utah won by 36 points and the agent won $4.13. A second $5.00 wager that day, that both Real Salt Lake and the Vancouver Whitecaps would score, carried a 66% stated chance and a $0.13 fee; Real Salt Lake did not score and the agent lost $4.99.

Five wagers came on September 20 from Davis County. Three covered the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans: a $5.00 wager that the teams would have an equal score at the end of the first quarter (25% chance, $0.25 fee; they did not, and the agent lost $5.00), a $5.00 wager that the teams would collectively score over 7.5 points in the fourth quarter (89% chance, $0.03 fee; they scored 10, and the agent won $0.63), and a $5.00 wager that they would collectively score over 39.5 points by the end of the game (48% chance, $0.18 fee; they scored 44, and the agent won $5.04). The agent also wagered $10.00 that Milwaukee would not beat Baltimore by more than 1.5 runs (48% chance, $0.18 fee; Milwaukee won by three runs, and the agent lost $9.99) and $5.00 that Indianapolis would beat Kansas City (29% chance, $0.24 fee; the Chiefs won, and the agent lost $5.00).

On September 23, from Salt Lake County, the agent wagered $20.00 that Troy would beat Utah State (44% chance, $0.78 fee; Troy lost, and the agent lost $20.00) and $30.00 that the Utah Mammoth would beat the Colorado Avalanche (66% chance, $0.70 fee; the Mammoth won, and the agent won $14.40). On September 24, from Davis County, he wagered $4.00 that Michael Penix Jr. would accrue more than 200 passing yards (53% chance, $0.13 fee; Penix accrued 256 yards, and the agent won $3.30) and $10.87 that Bijan Robinson would accrue over 50 rushing yards (81% chance, $0.14 fee; Robinson accrued 194 rushing yards, and the agent won $2.37).

The declaration states that Kalshi makes money by charging a weighted transaction fee for facilitating each wager and uses a portion of its collected operating revenue to compensate market makers through incentive programs that improve its commercial performance. Prosecutors allege that through those fees Kalshi received proceeds derived from a pattern of unlawful activity and used or invested them in the establishment or operation of its enterprise; the declaration notes that online gambling promotion under § 76-9-1404 is an enumerated “unlawful activity” predicate under § 76-17-401.

The Information describes KalshiEX as a Delaware entity with its principal place of business at 594 Broadway, Room 407, New York, operating a platform accessible through a web browser and a smartphone application called “Kalshi: Trade Football & More.” The declaration states that, in publicly available recordings, Mansour has asserted that he exercises substantial, direct control over Kalshi’s business decisions, strategic direction, and operations, and that Lopes Lara has asserted that Kalshi’s internal business operations are centralized on her and that she oversees the company’s product, design, engineering, markets, and marketing. It alleges that each co-founder acquired or maintained an interest in or control of the enterprise through a pattern of unlawful activity and conducted or participated in the enterprise’s affairs through that pattern.

Prior Proceedings Between Utah and Kalshi

The Information recounts that KalshiEX sued Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox and other officials on February 23, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Case 2:26-cv-00151, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts Utah’s gambling laws and an injunction prohibiting state enforcement. On August 4, 2026, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby granted Utah summary judgment, concluding the federal law does not preempt Utah’s enforcement of its anti-gambling laws against Kalshi, and denied Kalshi’s preliminary-injunction motion as moot. The Tenth Circuit denied Kalshi’s motion for an injunction pending appeal on September 8, 2026, and the appeal remains pending.

In its August 4 announcement, the Attorney General’s Office said the court found gambling a field traditionally regulated by the states and that 23 federally recognized tribes and gaming associations moved to support the state’s position. “You can’t rebrand illegal gambling as a federal commodity, and today a federal judge agreed with us,” Brown said at the time.

On October 20, 2026, the office announced a state-court civil lawsuit against KalshiEX and related entities, alleging that Kalshi lets Utahns bet on sports, elections, politics, and other outcomes in violation of Utah gambling laws and that its activity is a public nuisance; the complaint asks the court to stop Kalshi from offering the bets in Utah. “Kalshi runs an online casino in Utah and calls it a prediction market. That violates Utah law,” Brown said, adding that Utah is one of only two states where gambling is prohibited under the state constitution.

On October 27, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it had sued Utah to block the state’s efforts to shut down CFTC-registered contract markets using state laws. Chairman Michael S. Selig said Congress entrusted the Commission with sole responsibility to oversee these markets and that the CFTC would defend its exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives. The agency said it has also initiated legal proceedings against nine other states and submitted briefs in four federal courts of appeal and one state supreme court.