U.S. Soldier Charged With Using Classified Maduro Raid Intel to Win $409K on Polymarket

Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke placed 13 bets worth roughly $33,000 on Polymarket before the January raid on Caracas, using classified information he was legally bound to protect.

Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Thursday against U.S. Army Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, charging him with using classified military intelligence about a covert operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to place a series of bets on the prediction market Polymarket that netted him more than $409,000.

Van Dyke was stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and took part in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve, the January 3 raid that removed Maduro from power in Caracas, according to the DOJ. In late December 2025, he allegedly signed a classified information nondisclosure agreement and created a Polymarket account using a VPN to mask his location. Between December 27 and January 2, the eve of the raid, he allegedly placed 13 bets totaling roughly $33,000 on markets asking whether U.S. forces would be in Venezuela by January 31, whether Maduro would be out of office, and whether Trump would invoke the War Powers Act. All bets resolved in his favor.

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After collecting his winnings, Van Dyke allegedly transferred most of the funds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault, then asked Polymarket to delete his account and changed the email address registered to the trading account. Polymarket said it identified the trades as suspicious, referred the matter to the DOJ, and cooperated with investigators.

The case marks the first U.S. insider-trading prosecution tied to a prediction market, following similar charges in Israel in February against soldiers who bet on military operations using classified information.

The DOJ charged Van Dyke with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and engaging in monetary transactions derived from unlawful activity. The CFTC filed a parallel civil complaint, calling it the first case of insider trading charges involving event contracts in the agency’s history. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York said the defendant “allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government.”