Justice Department claims soldier used classified information to bet on Maduro’s ouster

Federal prosecutors accused an Army soldier Thursday of using classified information to place bets on Polymarket about the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, made approximately $400,000 off of Polymarket from bets he placed on different scenarios related to Venezuela after he learned of the operation.

The suspect has been charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Account, one count of wire fraud and one count of an unlawful money transaction.

“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. 

“The defendant allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit," he continued. “That is clear insider trading and is illegal under federal law."  

“Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain," he added.

Van Dyke allegedly placed bets on different outcomes in Venezuela related to Maduro's capture and U.S. operations between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2, one day before the operation took place.

The suspect then allegedly tried to get Polymarket to delete his account on Jan. 6 by claiming that he lost access to the email address it was tied to and disguise his connection to the account, according to the New York Times. He also tried to hide the source of his sudden income.

Polymarket said it reported the suspicious activity to federal law enforcement and cooperated with the investigation.

“Last month, we published our enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading,” Polymarket said on X. “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.”

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.