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US prosecutors charged a soldier involved in planning the January raid to seize Venezuela’s strongman Nicolás Maduro with placing prediction-market trades on the mission that netted more than $400,000.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly used classified information to place bets on prediction market Polymarket, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday.
Acting US attorney-general Todd Blanche on Thursday said: “Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain.”
“Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply,” he added.
An active duty soldier at Fort Bragg, a military base in North Carolina, Van Dyke in December and January allegedly made roughly 13 bets worth $33,034 on positions including “US Forces in Venezuela” and “Maduro out” by January 31, while in possession of classified information.
After allegedly profiting $409,881, Van Dyke transferred most of his winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency vault and later to a new online brokerage account.
According to the indictment, the soldier sought to hide his identity in the prediction markets following reports of atypical trading linked to the Maduro contracts on Polymarket.
Van Dyke was charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, one count of wire fraud and one count of an unlawful monetary transaction. Each count carries a maximum sentence of between 10 and 20 years in prison.
The soldier was arraigned in a federal court in North Carolina, but the case has been assigned to the Manhattan federal court.
“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said Jay Clayton, US attorney of the Southern District of New York, on Thursday.
Polymarket said in an online post on X: “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & co-operated with their investigation. Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
Van Dyke could not immediately be reached for comment and there was no information immediately available about his defence counsel. The Pentagon referred questions to the US Army, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US in January launched strikes in Venezuela and captured Maduro along with his wife, marking the first time Washington had seized a Latin American leader in more than three decades.
They were flown to the US and indicted on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington
