Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his spouse.
Jesus Vargas/Getty Photographs
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Jesus Vargas/Getty Photographs
Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment towards a U.S. Military soldier, accusing him of utilizing his insider information of the clandestine navy operation to seize Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro in January to reap greater than $400,000 in earnings on the favored prediction market website Polymarket.
The Justice Division says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was a part of the workforce that deliberate and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this yr that resulted within the apprehension of Maduro.
The Division of Justice and the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee filed the actions towards Van Dyke, the primary time U.S. officers have leveled felony expenses towards somebody over prediction market wagers.
Based on the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing private authorities info and different expenses.
Buying and selling underneath quite a few usernames together with “Burdensome-Combine,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, leading to earnings exceeding $400,000.
“Prediction markets are usually not a haven for utilizing misappropriated confidential or labeled info for private achieve,” mentioned U.S. Legal professional Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “These entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets and techniques have an obligation to guard them and our armed service members, and to not use that info for private monetary achieve.”
Van Dyke’s protection lawyer is just not but publicly identified. Polymarket didn’t return a request for remark.
The fees towards Van Dyke come at a delicate time for the prediction market business, which has been rising exponentially, regardless of calls in Washington and amongst state leaders for the websites to be reined in.
Van Dyke is the primary to be charged within the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider buying and selling, however Israeli authorities in February arrested a number of individuals and charged two on suspicion of utilizing labeled info to put bets about navy operations in Iran on Polymarket.
