operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to place winning bets on Polymarket and pocket more than $400,000.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was directly involved in the “planning and execution” of Operation Absolute Resolve — the dangerous Jan. 3 special forces raid on Maduro’s compound in Caracas — and had access to “sensitive, nonpublic, classified information” about the operation, according to the Justice Department.
A week before the raid, Van Dyk, 38, allegedly placed more than $33,000 in wagers on Polymarket, a predictions market platform that allows users to bet on the outcome of future events, related to Maduro and US military action in Venezuela.
The soldier allegedly profited some $409,000 from the bets and took steps to conceal his identity and winnings, placing his ill-gotten proceeds into foreign cryptocurrency accounts.
Van Dyk was charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act; one count of wire fraud; and one count of an unlawful monetary transaction
He faces a maximum of 60 years in prison if convicted
The charges were brought by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York
“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. “The defendant allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit.
That is clear insider trading and is illegal under federal law.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche noted that while “widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon … federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said Van Dyke’s arrest “makes clear no one is above the law.”
“Any clearance holders thinking of cashing in their access and knowledge for personal gain will be held accountable,” Patel warned
Polymarket, which is headquartered in Manhattan, said it cooperated with the Justice Department’s investigation of Van Dyke.
“Last month, we published our enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading,” the company wrote on X. “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation
“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
Van Dyke’s involvement in the planning and execution of the Maduro raid, which also captured the ousted dictator’s wife, Cilia Flores, started on Dec. 8, 2025, according to prosecutors, while he was stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The military base houses some of the Army’s most elite divisions, including the 82nd Airborne, XVIII Airborne Corps, Special Operations Command and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
Van Dyke had signed nondisclosure agreements related to “Western Hemisphere Operations” being planned at the base, promising to “never divulge, publish, or reveal by writing, words, conduct, or otherwise . . . any classified or sensitive information,” according to the indictment.
His role in Operation Absolute Resolve continued through at least Jan. 6.
Prosecutors say that around Dec. 26, 2025, Van Dyke used a virtual private network (VPN) service to create a Polymarket account that made it seem he would be placing bets from a foreign country.
Between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2, Van Dyke allegedly made around 13 bets on binary propositions related to Maduro and Venezuela — taking the “YES” position on “U.S. Forces in Venezuela . . . by January 31, 2026”; “Maduro out by . . . January 31, 2026”; “Will the U.S. invade Venezuela by . . . January 31,”; and “Trump invokes War Powers against Venezuela by . . . January 31.”
Of the $33,000 or so in bets Van Dyke allegedly made, about $26,000 worth were placed on the morning of Jan. 2 – hours before the covert pre-dawn Jan. 3 raid, which injured seven US service members.
Van Dyke allegedly avoided losses on bets that President Trump would “invade” Venezuela or invoke “War Powers against Venezuela” by selling his position before they resolved.
The indictment notes that about an hour after Trump announced Maduro’s capture, a photograph of Van Dyke in military fatigues and holding a rifle “on what appears to be the deck of a ship at sea” was uploaded to his Google account.
Van Dyke cashed out his Polymarket account, including his $409,000 in unlawful winnings, shortly after the raid and stashed the money in a foreign cryptocurrency “vault,” according to prosecutors.
The indictment alleges that he subsequently moved the funds to a cryptocurrency exchange account and then a brokerage account.
On Tuesday, investigators found the brokerage account contained about $415,000 “representing proceeds traceable to Van Dyke’s Polymarket trades.
Asked about the soldier’s arrest, Trump indicated he doesn’t like the concept of predictive markets.
“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino,” the president said.
“I was never much in favor of it, I don’t like it conceptually,” he added.
