US soldier accused of using secret Maduro raid intel to win $400,000 bet
The accused, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, is an active-duty Army soldier based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
A US special forces soldier has been arrested after prosecutors accused him of turning classified military intelligence into personal profit by betting on Nicolás Maduro’s removal before the operation became public.
The accused, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, is an active-duty Army soldier based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. According to the US Justice Department, he used sensitive information from Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission that led to Maduro’s capture, to place wagers on Polymarket and allegedly made more than $400,000.
Federal investigators say Van Dyke began trading on Venezuela-related prediction markets in late December 2025, while he was involved in planning and executing the operation. Prosecutors allege he staked more than $33,000 on outcomes tied to Maduro’s removal, using information that was not available to the public.
The Justice Department has charged him with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and an unlawful monetary transaction. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also filed a civil case against him.
Polymarket said it referred the matter to federal authorities after detecting what it believed was trading based on classified government information and added that insider trading has no place on the platform.
The case is expected to intensify scrutiny of prediction markets, especially where national security and nonpublic government information may be involved.
