A soldier in the U.S. special forces who participated in the raid on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has been charged with allegedly betting on the operation.
The soldier, later identified as Gannon Ken Van Dyke, allegedly bet approximately $33,034 on the prediction market platform Polymarket toward the outcome of the raid, raking in a massive payday of $409,000. Van Dyke allegedly placed the bets while partaking in the “planning and execution of the U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro,” per the Justice Department.
“In total, Van Dyke made approximately 13 bets from Dec. 27, 2025, through the evening of Jan. 26,” the DOJ said, adding that he has been criminally 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.”
The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said that the charges “arise from an alleged scheme in which Van Dyke used sensitive classified information to make wagers on Polymarket.”
According to NBC News, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates Polymarket, said it was also hitting Van Dyke with civil charges, adding that it will be seeking “restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.”
Polymarket said that it referred the matter to the DOJ after it identified the user trading on classified information.
“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a post on X. “Today’s arrest is proof the system works. Last month, we published our enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading. When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation. Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
