New Delhi: A US military operation was carried out to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January this year. Now, it has emerged that a US special forces soldier involved in the operation has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win over $400,000 in an online betting market, an AP report said, citing federal officials.
In January, US soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market platform Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said.
What are the charges against him?
Van Dyke, 38, has been 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 report said. The soldier could face years in jail.
As per the federal prosecutor’s office, Van Dyke was involved in planning and executing the operation to capture Maduro for about a month, starting December 8, 2025. The soldier had signed nondisclosure agreements promising that he wouldn’t reveal “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, the office added.
What did he allegedly do?
According to officials, Van Dyke made a Polymarket account towards the end of December and placed about 13 bets that took the “Yes” position on such wagers as US Forces being in Venezuela and Maduro being out by January 31, 2026.
In a post on social media, FBI Director Kash Patel said: “This involved a US soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation.”
It is also alleged by the officials that soon after after the operation, Van Dyke put most of the money he earned in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He also asked Polymarket to delete his account, stating that he had lost access to his email related with the account, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
The report said a phone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was out of service, and it remains unclear if he has legal representation.
Polymarket pointed out that it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the US Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation”. In a statement on X, it said: “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket.”
He joined the Army in 2003
In 2008, Van Dyke joined the Army. In 2023, he promoted to the rank of Master Sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army, as per the indictment.
Federal prosecutors said that Van Dyke was a senior-enlisted soldier who participated in the special forces community and was deployed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The document pointed out that Van Dyke was photographed after the raid on the deck of a ship “wearing US military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing US military fatigues”.