The USA Division of Justice has filed prison expenses in opposition to an active-duty soldier for putting a wager on the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, utilizing labeled army info for private revenue.
On Thursday, prosecutors accused Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, of cashing in on the operation in opposition to Maduro, to the tune of greater than $400,000.
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They are saying he used the prediction market platform Polymarket 13 instances to wager on subjects together with whether or not US forces would “invade” Venezuela and when Maduro can be faraway from workplace. Officers framed his actions as a dire breach of public belief.
“Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly betrayed his fellow troopers by using labeled info for his personal monetary acquire,” mentioned James C Barnacle Jr, an assistant director on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Van Dyke has been charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Trade Act, one rely of wire fraud and one rely of finishing up an illegal financial transaction.
Every commodities fraud and illegal transaction cost carries a most sentence of 10 years in jail. The wire fraud cost may end in as much as 20 years.
The provision of prediction markets — on-line betting platforms the place customers can gamble on real-world occasions — has expanded below the second presidency of Republican chief Donald Trump.
Administration officers and shut advisers to Trump, together with his son Donald Trump Jr, keep ties to the prediction market business.
Trump Jr, for instance, was named a “strategic adviser” to the prediction market Kalshi in January 2025, shortly earlier than his father was sworn in.
In Might 2025, lower than 5 months into Trump’s second time period, the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee dropped its authorized struggle in opposition to Kalshi, paving the best way for bets to be positioned on political occasions like elections.
Since then, prediction markets have proliferated within the US, with some bets elevating questions in regards to the prospect of insider buying and selling.
Critics concern authorities officers and different politicians may use the platforms to wager on actions they themselves management.
The sizeable bets made forward of the US assault on Venezuela on January 3, 2026, had been among the many situations that raised purple flags, with media shops reporting on the “thriller dealer” who scored massive.
Thursday’s unsealed indictment (PDF) makes the Justice Division’s case for why Van Dyke was the dealer in query.
In response to the prison grievance, the soldier — who was based mostly at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina — created a Polymarket account round December 26, 2025, utilizing a digital non-public community (VPN) to put his location overseas.
Inside days, he was making bets associated to Venezuela that prosecutors say leveraged the labeled intelligence he was aware of.
Round December 27, he purchased $96 value of bets on the prospect that US forces can be in Venezuela by January 31. Just a few days later, on December 30, he positioned roughly $1,323 in bets on Maduro being out of workplace earlier than the top of January.
His playing continued because the army operation ticked nearer. On January 1, he gambled $6,100 on a spread of various situations, together with Maduro being ousted, the US invading Venezuela, and Trump invoking warfare powers in opposition to Venezuela.
The next day, he positioned much more bets, value $6,150, $6,000, $7,050 and $7,215 a bit.
Then, within the early hours of January 3, the US launched its army operation in opposition to Venezuela, culminating within the abduction and imprisonment of Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores.
Dozens of Venezuelans and Cubans died within the assault, which was confirmed to the general public at 4:21am US Jap Time (08:21 GMT).
The indictment explains that Van Dyke “was concerned within the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve”, because the army assault was referred to as.
“He possessed materials nonpublic details about that operation on the time of every commerce he positioned in Maduro and Venezuela-related markets,” the indictment alleges.
Shortly after his $400,000 windfall, prosecutors say Van Dyke transferred a lot of his proceeds to a international cryptocurrency vault. By January 6, he contacted Polymarket to delete his account.
Thursday’s indictment comes sooner or later after Kalshi revealed it had fined and suspended three customers who had been allegedly candidates within the 2026 midterm elections. All three had positioned bets on the outcomes of their very own races.
