Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his spouse.
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Jesus Vargas/Getty Pictures
Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment towards a U.S. Military soldier, accusing him of utilizing his insider data of the clandestine army operation to seize Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro in January to reap greater than $400,000 in income on the favored prediction market website Polymarket.
The Justice Division says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was a part of the crew that deliberate and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this 12 months that resulted within the apprehension of Maduro.
The Division of Justice and the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee filed the actions towards Van Dyke, the primary time U.S. officers have leveled legal prices towards somebody over prediction market wagers.
In keeping with the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing personal authorities data and different prices.
Buying and selling underneath quite a few usernames together with “Burdensome-Combine,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, leading to income exceeding $400,000.
“Prediction markets should not a haven for utilizing misappropriated confidential or labeled data for private achieve,” stated U.S. Legal professional Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “These entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets and techniques have an obligation to guard them and our armed service members, and to not use that data for private monetary achieve.”
Van Dyke’s protection lawyer will not be but publicly identified. Polymarket didn’t return a request for remark.
The costs towards Van Dyke come at a delicate time for the prediction market trade, which has been rising exponentially, regardless of calls in Washington and amongst state leaders for the websites to be reined in.
Van Dyke is the primary to be charged within the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider buying and selling, however Israeli authorities in February arrested a number of individuals and charged two on suspicion of utilizing labeled data to put bets about army operations in Iran on Polymarket.
