A U.S. special forces soldier involved in the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been arrested and charged with using classified information from the raid to win more than $400,000 on the prediction market site Polymarket.
The federal prosecutor's office in New York stated that Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the raid in January to capture Maduro and allegedly leveraged his access to classified information to profit on Polymarket.
Charges Filed
The U.S. Justice Department has charged Van Dyke with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction. If convicted, the 38-year-old soldier could face years in prison.
Details of the Allegations
Prosecutors said Van Dyke was involved in planning and executing the Maduro raid for about a month starting Dec. 8, 2025. He used information from the raid to place bets on Maduro being out of power by the end of January. Despite signing nondisclosure agreements, he allegedly made these bets.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media: "This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation."
Polymarket stated it alerted the Justice Department after detecting trading on classified government information, emphasizing that "insider trading has no place on Polymarket."
Second Complaint
On Thursday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a second complaint against Van Dyke. It alleges he transferred $35,000 from his personal bank account to a cryptocurrency exchange on Dec. 26, 2025, a week before the raid. He reportedly used over $32,500 to place bets on when Maduro would be removed, with most bets placed on the night of Jan. 2, hours before missiles hit Caracas.
On the morning of Jan. 3, U.S. President Donald Trump shared a photo of Maduro in U.S. custody on Truth Social. Van Dyke's bets yielded more than $404,000 in profits, with additional wins on three other Venezuela-related contracts exceeding $5,000.
After the raid, the large profits from well-timed bets prompted bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of prediction markets. Van Dyke allegedly stashed most of the cash in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and a new brokerage account, and asked Polymarket to delete his account, claiming he lost access to the associated email.
Military Career
Van Dyke enlisted in the army in 2008 and was promoted to master sergeant in 2023, the second-highest enlisted rank. He was part of the special forces community at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, N.C. The indictment noted he was pictured after the raid on a ship deck wearing U.S. military fatigues and carrying a rifle alongside three other individuals.
— With files from The Associated Press
