RALEIGH, N.C. – A U.S. Army special forces soldier involved in the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is due in court after being charged with using classified information to secure over $400,000 through a prediction market. Federal prosecutors allege Gannon Ken Van Dyke accessed sensitive information relating to the mission, carried out in January, to place lucrative bets on Polymarket, an online prediction market.
Stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Van Dyke faces charges of unlawful use of confidential government information, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. He could be sentenced to years in prison.
Van Dyke, 38, reportedly signed nondisclosure agreements to avoid sharing any classified information but allegedly utilized insider knowledge to make predictions about Maduro's political future and bet on his removal by January 2026.
The bets aroused public concern following significant profits and drew attention to the need for stricter regulation of prediction markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also filed a complaint against Van Dyke, indicating he made substantial bets days prior to the military operation, and moved $35,000 into a cryptocurrency account shortly beforehand.
Michael Selig, chairman of the CFTC, emphasized that Van Dyke's actions jeopardized U.S. national security, stating, The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way. The investigation remains ongoing as authorities examine the implications of insider trading in such prediction markets.
