Kalshi faces class-action lawsuit over $54 million unpaid

Investing.com – The prediction market platform Kalshi was sued on Thursday for failing to pay $54 million to users betting that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would step down before March 1, 2026. According to class action documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Khamenei died on Saturday during a U.S.-Israel joint strike operation that killed hundreds, including senior Iranian officials. The strikes came after months of military buildup by the U.S. in the region.

The lawsuit states that, due to the fluidity of geopolitical situations, Kalshi customers were attracted to the “Khamenei market.” The complaint accuses the company of only invoking the “death exception” clause after the Iranian leader was killed to avoid paying customers.

The lawsuit argues that, given the deployment of the U.S. Navy near Iran and widespread expectations of military conflict, consumers reasonably understood that the most likely way for a 85-year-old authoritarian leader to leave office was through death. The complaint claims Kalshi was aware of this as well.

According to the court documents, the language regarding how Khamenei would leave office was “clear, unambiguous, and binary,” and the lawsuit describes Kalshi’s actions as “deceptive” and “predatory.”

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour defended the death exception clause on Saturday, saying it “keeps the rules simple.” Mansour stated that Kalshi would refund all fees related to the Khamenei market.

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