A US special forces soldier involved in the military operation that captured Nicolas Maduro has been arrested after he allegedly bet on the removal of Venezuela’s former leader before the information was publicly available.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Gannon Ken Van Dyke after he allegedly made trades on Polymarket, a crypto-powered platform, on the basis of classified information.
“That is clear insider trading and is illegal under federal law,” justice department officials said.
Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier in the US Army stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, won more than $409,000 (£303,702) as a result of his bets.
US forces seized Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their compound in Caracas in a dramatic, night-time raid on 3 January, and brought them to New York to face allegations of weapon and drug offences, which they deny.
Van Dyke allegedly placed bets on the timing and outcome of the operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, “all to turn a profit”, the justice department said in a statement on Thursday.
The DOJ alleges that on or about 26 December 2025, Van Dyke created a Polymarket account and began trading on Maduro and Venezuela-related markets. He is accused of making bets of more than $33,000 (£24,500) while in possession of classified nonpublic information about Operation Absolute Resolve. In a statement posted on social media on Thursday, Polymarket said: “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation.”
The company added: “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
Van Dyke has been charged 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, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday.
“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 US Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.”
US Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, where the case will proceed, added that prediction markets “are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain”.
The justice department officials said that as a soldier 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”.
Federal prosecutors allege that starting from 8 December 2025 until at least 6 January 2026, Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve and had access to sensitive, nonpublic, classified information about that operation.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an independent US federal agency, said it had also filed a complaint against Van Dyke accusing him of engaging in insider trading.
Asked about the alleged betting during an unrelated event on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had not heard about it but would look into it.
When asked about concerns that prediction markets could lead to insider trading, the president said he is “not happy with any of that stuff”.
“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” he said. “I was never much in favour of it.”
By BBC News
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
