The other life of US soldier accused of betting on Maduro’s removal
The other life of US soldier accused of betting on Maduro's removal
Special forces soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke has been a busy man in recent years – both in and out of uniform. He rose to the rank of master sergeant at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he signed non-disclosure agreements to deal with classified operations, including – prosecutors allege – his role in the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January.
He set up a property company and bought at least six homes, overseeing long-term tenants and responding promptly to guests at his Airbnb cottage – a mountain retreat he called Daddy Bear Cave, complete with stylish finishes and rave reviews.
And, according to federal charging papers, Van Dyke also used his knowledge of top-secret operations to trade on Polymarket, allegedly cashing out more than $400,000 (£296,000) after betting on Maduro’s removal. The removal involved a covert military operation which prosecutors allege that Van Dyke helped plan and execute within the US military.
Between 27 December and 2 January, the US Army officer purchased about $33,934 worth of bets related to Maduro and Venezuela, the indictment unsealed last week says.
The bets predicted when US forces would go into Venezuela and when Maduro would be unseated, among others, according to the filing.
Van Dyke faces charges of unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.
He is due to be arraigned – or formally charged – in a New York federal courthouse on Tuesday, US media report.
In a separate lawsuit brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent US federal agency, he is also accused of insider trading.
From the military base to Airbnb
Van Dyke has been an active duty soldier in the US since 2008 and has been a master sergeant with the US Army Special Forces since 2023, according to the indictment.
In his time at Fort Bragg, he was trained for special operations. As part of his command, Van Dyke signed a non-disclosure agreement in September 2018 acknowledging that the US government placed “special confidence and trust” in him. He promised to “never divulge anything” marked as “sensitive” information or even that he knew such information.
The federal court filing does not set out in detail Van Dyke’s day-to-day duties or his exact role in the Maduro operation, which included air strikes, a network of on-the-ground spies and a massive military presence that had been built up over months in the region.
Outside his role in the military, Van Dyke was also an ambitious businessman, his social media profile and that of his wife reveal.
On Instagram, the soldier makes no mention of his military life. Alongside a shirtless profile photo, he describes himself in his bio as a father and “Fayetteville NC based real estate investor”.
On LinkedIn, he lists himself as owner of Better Homes NC LLC, registered in 2022, and his profile photo is the company logo.
Posting several years ago on a real estate investment forum, he wrote: “I currently own 5 properties, but am looking to pick up another 2-3 this year, so scalability is important for me.”
His mountain retreat on Airbnb – where he’s rated a “superhost” – includes guest reviews dubbing him “helpful”, “attentive” and quick to respond. The soldier’s profile notes he loves “to travel, and do anything related to the outdoors; hiking, backpacking, camping, biking, boating”.
Van Dyke made his most recent home purchase – a $340,000, three-bedroom, 2,400-sq-ft (223-sq-m) home – exactly 20 days after Maduro’s capture, according to public records.
The soldier’s wife, meanwhile, makes frequent online posts about homes for sale or rent, advertising her listings and calls for tenants through Better Homes and Coldwell Banker Advantage.
The native Californian’s Instagram, which vanished on Friday, featured upbeat content about coffee shops and pet rescues – though no recent posts mentioned her husband. His Facebook profile currently lists him as “single”.
The use of Polymarket, a crypto-powered platform, has increasingly come under scrutiny as concerns mount over US government officials using non-public information to place bets.
There was widespread uproar in early January, when online sleuths found that someone had made nearly half a million dollars on Maduro’s seizure.
It was unclear initially who placed the bet. The anonymous account had a blockchain identifier of letters and numbers.
“Lots of folks participating in Polymarket are not identified precisely because of the blockchain technology,” Professor Joshua Mitts from Columbia Law School told the BBC. “So it is the Wild West, because for most of the participants on Polymarket, we just don’t know who they are. All we have is a blockchain address.”
However, Van Dyke allegedly used a personal email address to set up his Polymarket account. Prosecutors say once news reports highlighted the bet, Van Dyke took steps to conceal his identity and delete the account.
According to the Department of Justice, he allegedly withdrew his winnings – about $409,881 – and transferred the bulk of the funds to a foreign cryptocurrency “vault” that generates interest. It is alleged that he changed his email address on his cryptocurrency exchange account to a new one he had created. Then on 16 January, he allegedly transferred the funds and their accumulated interest – approximately $444,209 – to a newly created brokerage account.
Despite his alleged efforts, investigators say they were able to uncover the history of his alleged betting. The indictment notes he created his Polymarket account on 26 December 2025 using a virtual private network (VPN) service, which showed him browsing in a foreign country as he accessed the market.
Over the next week, he allegedly spent tens of thousands of dollars on a series of bets.
On 3 January, just hours after Van Dyke’s last alleged bet, US President Donald Trump announced the overnight capture of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in Caracas. The couple were transported to the USS Iwo Jima, a US naval ship stationed in the Caribbean Sea for the operation.
It wasn’t long before Polymarket paid out bets relating to Maduro and Venezuela.
A little more than an hour after Trump’s post, Van Dyke posted a photo on his Google account, prosecutors said in the indictment.
Carrying a rifle, he posed with other soldiers wearing military fatigues. They appeared to be aboard the deck of a ship at sea. It was sunrise.
By BBC News