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A U.S. service member has been charged with using classified information to place bets on online prediction markets related to the American operation to apprehend former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, according to the Department of Justice. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, from Fayetteville, North Carolina, allegedly profited over $400,000 through the platform Polymarket by betting on outcomes involving U.S. forces arriving in Caracas and overthrowing Maduro—an operation he reportedly assisted in planning and executing.
The U.S. military conducted strikes on Caracas on January 3, which led to Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, being detained and transported to New York to face drug trafficking charges. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated, “Our armed forces are entrusted with sensitive information to complete their missions and are strictly prohibited from exploiting that information for personal financial gain.”
The platform indicated it had identified the user who placed the bets and reported the activity to authorities, emphasizing that insider trading is unacceptable on their platform and that the arrest demonstrates the integrity of the system.
Van Dyke faces multiple charges, including wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions, and violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, as outlined in the indictment. This case is among the latest instances where insider information was harnessed to place bets on the actions of the now-defunct Trump administration.
Earlier, six accounts on the same platform earned approximately $1.2 million by betting that the U.S. would attack Iran on February 28, the day the Middle Eastern conflict ignited. No arrests have been made concerning those bets, and there is no current evidence linking President Donald Trump or White House staff to those transactions.
During a press briefing Thursday, Trump expressed skepticism about widespread betting practices, saying, “The whole world has become somewhat of a casino—Europe and everywhere else—they’re doing these betting things. I was never very supportive of it.”
Critics, including Democratic lawmakers, accuse Trump and his family of conflicts of interest. Bernie Sanders, a progressive senator, claimed Thursday that “The Trump family has made $4 billion off the presidency,” characterizing it as an unprecedented form of kleptocracy.
In March, Trump posted about “very productive” discussions with Iran on his social media platform, which caused oil prices to drop and stock markets to surge. Experts suggest that those who preemptively made futures trades in anticipation of that event could have earned tens of millions of dollars. Additionally, members of the Trump family have reaped hundreds of millions in profits from cryptocurrency investments, a market they have actively sought to deregulate.
If Van Dyke is convicted on all charges, his maximum sentence could reach 50 years in federal prison.
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