U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant Arrested for $400K Betting Using Classified Info on Maduro Capture

A U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant was arrested on a federal indictment accusing him of using classified information to make bets that won him $400,000 on the Polymarket prediction market related to the American military mission that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.

The sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, "participated in the planning and execution of the" operation to capture Maduro in early January, the DOJ said. The arrest comes as Polymarket and Kalshi have increased in popularity and as concerns have grown about people with inside information making wagers on those prediction market platforms.

Van Dyke, 38, had been stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which houses U.S. military special forces who were involved in the capture of Maduro and his wife. He is expected to be presented on Thursday evening to a magistrate judge in federal court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Van Dyke is charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act; one count of wire fraud; and one count of unlawful monetary transaction. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted of the top criminal count, wire fraud, and up to 10 years in each of the remaining counts.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets, separately charged Van Dyke in a civil complaint for allegedly using classified nonpublic information to make the wagers related to the Maduro capture mission.

Both the criminal and civil cases against Van Dyke were filed in New York City, in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. That is the same courthouse where Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons charges, and where his wife, Cilia Flores, is charged with cocaine conspiracy and weapons counts.

President Donald Trump, when asked about Van Dyke's arrest and other cases of suspected insider trading on prediction markets, said, "You know the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino."

"And you look at what's going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they're doing these betting things," Trump said. "I was never much in favor of it. I don't like it conceptually, but it is what it is ... I'm not happy with any of that stuff."