A U.S. particular forces soldier concerned within the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with utilizing labeled details about the mission to win greater than $400,000 in an online betting market, federal officers introduced Thursday.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke was a part of the operation to seize Maduro in January and used his entry to labeled info to earn money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s workplace in New York mentioned.
He has been charged by the Justice Division with illegal use of confidential authorities info for private acquire, theft of nonpublic authorities info, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an illegal financial transaction. He might face years in jail.
Van Dyke, 38, was concerned within the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for a few month starting Dec. 8, 2025, in response to the federal prosecutor’s workplace. Regardless that he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not expose “any labeled or delicate info” associated to the operations, prosecutors say the Military soldier used this info to make a collection of bets associated to Maduro being out of energy by Jan. 31, 2026.
“This concerned a U.S. soldier who allegedly took benefit of his place to revenue off of a righteous army operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel mentioned in a put up to social media.
A phone quantity listed for Van Dyke in public data was not in service. There was not but an legal professional listed for him in court docket paperwork.
Polymarket, one of many largest prediction markets on the earth, mentioned it had discovered somebody buying and selling on labeled authorities info, alerted the U.S. Division of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.”
“Insider buying and selling has no place on Polymarket,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.
Second grievance filed towards the soldier
The Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, the federal company that regulates prediction markets, introduced Thursday it had filed a parallel grievance towards Van Dyke.
That grievance alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his private checking account right into a cryptocurrency trade account on Dec. 26 — a bit over every week earlier than U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro.
Van Dyke used greater than $32,500 to make a collection of bets on when Maduro is perhaps faraway from energy, in response to the grievance. He positioned these bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the overwhelming majority occurring the night time of Jan. 2 — simply hours earlier than the primary missiles would fall on Caracas.
Within the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform a photograph of the now-captured Venezuelan chief, carrying a grey sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold.
The bets Van Dyke made on Maduro leaving energy resulted in “greater than $404,000 of income,” the grievance mentioned. Bets on three different Venezuela-related contracts netted the solider greater than $5,000, in response to the doc.
“The defendant was entrusted with confidential details about U.S. operations and but took motion that endangered U.S. nationwide safety and put the lives of American service members in hurt’s means,” mentioned Michael Selig, the fee’s chairman.
The large income from the well-timed bets aroused public consideration days after the raid and introduced bipartisan requires stricter regulation of the markets the place folks can wager on absolutely anything.
Officers allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke put a lot of the cash he gained in a international cryptocurrency vault after which into a brand new brokerage account. He additionally requested Polymarket to delete his account, saying he had misplaced entry to his electronic mail related to the account, in response to the federal prosecutor’s workplace.
Trump, when requested concerning the case Thursday, drew parallels between the embattled soldier and late skilled baseball participant Pete Rose, who was banned from the game amid accusations that he positioned bets on his personal crew.
“The entire world, sadly, has turn out to be considerably of a on line casino, and also you take a look at what’s occurring all around the world and Europe and each place, they’re doing these betting issues,” Trump informed reporters.
The Trump administration has been a key ally of the rising prediction market trade in a crucial authorized battle with states in search of to ban the platforms. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for each Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi, and a Polymarket investor. Trump’s social media platform Reality Social can also be launching its personal cryptocurrency-based prediction market referred to as Reality Predict.
Almost twenty years within the Military
Van Dyke joined the Military in 2008 and, in 2023, was promoted to the rank of grasp sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank within the Military, in response to the indictment. Federal prosecutors mentioned he was a part of the particular forces group and was stationed at Fort Bragg close to Fayetteville, North Carolina, however their indictment supplied little different particulars about his army service.
The doc mentioned Van Dyke was photographed following the raid on the deck of a ship “carrying U.S. army fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three different people carrying U.S. army fatigues.”
The Pentagon referred questions on the case to the Military and the Justice Division.
Military officers declined to offer Van Dyke’s service report. Usually, the army providers are reticent to supply particulars about members of the particular forces and take measures to maintain their identities secret.
Bets on geopolitical tensions draw scrutiny
The high-profile indictment comes as bipartisan lawmakers are contemplating laws to ban prediction markets from permitting bets on struggle, assassinations or terrorist assaults.
Earlier this month, The Related Press reported {that a} group of recent accounts on Polymarket made extremely particular, well-timed bets on whether or not the U.S. and Iran would attain a ceasefire on April 7, leading to tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in income for the brand new prospects. On the identical day the AP printed the report, the White Home warned employees towards utilizing non-public info to commerce on prediction markets.
On Wednesday, Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates who the corporate mentioned wagered on the end result of their very own elections.
—Hallie Golden, Konstantin Toropin and Hannah Schoenbaum, Related Press
