A US Army soldier was arrested and charged for using classified information to profit more than $400,00 on the capture of Maduro betting on Polymarket, a prediction marketplace.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and FBI Director Kash Patel on Thursday announced the unsealing of an indictment charging US Army soldier Gannon Ken 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.
The US Army’s Delta Force captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January.
The feds allege that Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who participated in the planning and execution of the U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, called “Operation Absolute Resolve,” used his access to classified information about that operation to personally profit.
“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,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply,” Blanche said.
Per the Justice Department:
As alleged in the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:[1]
VAN DYKE has been an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Bragg, a military base located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In connection with his work, VAN DYKE signed nondisclosure agreements in which he promised to “never divulge, publish, or reveal by writing, words, conduct, or otherwise . . . any classified or sensitive information” relating to military operations. Starting around December 8, 2025, and continuing through at least January 6, 2026, VAN DYKE was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve, a military operation to capture Maduro, and had access to sensitive, nonpublic, classified information about that operation.
In 2025, Polymarket, a prediction marketplace operated by Blockratize, Inc., began offering binary event contracts related to whether certain events involving Venezuela and/or Maduro would, or would not, occur. Those event contracts included the future likelihood of “US forces in Venezuela by” certain dates, the future likelihood of Maduro being “out” of or removed from power by certain dates, the future likelihood of the U.S. invading Venezuela by on or before January 31, 2026, and the future likelihood of President Trump “invokeing War Powers against Venezuela” by a certain date.
As alleged, on or about December 26, 2025, VAN DYKE created a Polymarket account, funded it, and began trading on Maduro- and Venezuela-related markets. In total, VAN DYKE made approximately 13 bets from December 27, 2025, through the evening of January 2, 2026. Those bets all took 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,”; or “Trump invokes War Powers against Venezuela by . . . January 31.” VAN DYKE bet a total of approximately $33,034 on those outcomes while in possession of classified nonpublic information about Operation Absolute Resolve.
In the predawn hours of January 3, 2026, U.S. special forces apprehended Maduro and his wife at a residence in Caracas, Venezuela, and hours later the President of the United States announced the successful operation. Following the President’s public announcement, Polymarket resolved several Maduro- and Venezuela-related contracts to “YES,” including the markets “Maduro out by . . . January 31, 2026,” and “US forces in Venezuela by . . . January 31, 2026.” As a result, VAN DYKE won his wagers on those contracts. In total, VAN DYKE allegedly profited approximately $409,881.
Following his successful trading relating to Maduro- and Venezuela-related contracts, VAN DYKE allegedly sent most of his proceeds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before depositing them into a newly created online brokerage account. The same day of the operation, VAN DYKE withdrew the majority of his allegedly unlawful proceeds from his Polymarket account. Shortly after the announcement of Operation Absolute Resolve, reports of unusual trading in Maduro-related contracts on Polymarket appeared in the press and on social media.
VAN DYKE then took steps to conceal his identity as the trader in the Maduro- and Venezuela-related markets. On or about January 6, 2026, for example, VAN DYKE asked Polymarket to delete his Polymarket account, falsely claiming that he had lost access to the email address to which the account had been associated. That same day, VAN DYKE changed the email registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account to an email address that was not subscribed to in his name, and which he had created on or about December 14, 2025.
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