US Special Forces Soldier Arrested for Polymarket Bets on Maduro Raid

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an enlisted subordinate of the US Army’s peculiar forces, for allegedly utilizing “classified, nonpublic” accusation astir the seizure of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to notch much than $400,000 successful profits connected Polymarket trades. A expansive assemblage indicted him connected 5 counts, including aggregate violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.

Van Dyke is the archetypal idiosyncratic to beryllium charged with insider trading connected a prediction marketplace successful the United States. Lawmakers person been voicing concerns for months astir the precocious likelihood that politicians and nationalist servants could usage nonpublic accusation to nett from trades connected starring manufacture platforms similar Polymarket and Kalshi, which person exploded successful popularity implicit the past year.

The apprehension comes conscionable weeks aft Department of Justice prosecutors met with Polymarket astir imaginable insider contented violations. In February, Israeli authorities arrested 2 citizens, an Army reservist and a civilian, for allegedly leaking classified accusation by making wagers connected Polymarket related to subject operations. Kalshi, Polymarket’s superior rival successful the United States, precocious fined 3 politicians for breaking its insider trading rules, but it did not emblem the violations for further enforcement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the national bureau that oversees prediction markets.

After Van Dyke’s apprehension was made public, Polymarket posted a connection to societal media noting that it had “identified a idiosyncratic trading connected classified authorities information” and “referred the substance to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation.” The institution declined to remark further.

According to tribunal documents, Van Dyke has been an progressive work US worker since September 2008 and roseate to the level of maestro sergeant successful 2023. At the clip of the alleged trading activity, helium was stationed astatine Fort Bragg successful Fayetteville, North Carolina and assigned to the Army’s Special Operations Command Western Hemisphere Operations.

“I person been crystal wide that anyone who engages successful fraud, manipulation, oregon insider trading successful immoderate of our markets volition look the afloat unit of the law,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said successful a statement. “The suspect was entrusted with confidential accusation astir US operations and yet took enactment that endangered US nationalist information and enactment the lives of American work members successful harm’s way.”

The ailment alleges that Van Dyke was progressive successful the readying and execution of Maduro’s apprehension and that helium was alert that helium wasn’t authorized to stock nonpublic accusation astir US subject operations. The ailment says that Van Dyke signed a nondisclosure statement that forbade him from revealing delicate oregon classified authorities accusation “by writing, word, conduct, oregon otherwise.” The ailment besides alleges Van Dyke saved a screenshot to his Google relationship “displaying the results of an artificial quality query” outlining however the US Special Forces maintains galore classified files including “operational details that are not disposable to the public.”

On December 26, Van Dyke allegedly opened an relationship connected Polymarket and took retired astir $35,000 from his slope relationship earlier transferring it to a cryptocurrency exchange.

The pursuing day, Van Dyke allegedly made his archetypal Venezuela-related commercialized connected Polymarket, putting a small little than $100 connected a “YES” declaration that US forces would beryllium successful Venezuela” by January 31, 2026. Prosecutors impeach him of yet making 13 Venezuela-related transactions connected the level successful total, 7 of those—totalling hundreds of thousands of shares—on a “YES” declaration for “Maduro retired by ... January 31, 2026." In different words, Van Dyke allegedly stood to marque an tremendous nett if Maduro coiled up retired of powerfulness by the extremity of the month.