Special forces officer, 38, accused of using classified Maduro capture intel to win $400,000 in online bets

(SeaPRwire) –   Federal officials announced Thursday that a U.S. special forces soldier who participated in the military operation to apprehend Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with leveraging classified details about the mission to net more than $400,000 on an online betting platform.

The federal prosecutor’s office in New York stated that Gannon Ken Van Dyke was involved in the January operation to capture Maduro, and he used his clearance to access classified information to profit on the prediction market website Polymarket.

The Justice Department has charged him with illegally using confidential government information for personal profit, stealing non-public government data, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and conducting an unlawful financial transaction. He could be sentenced to multiple years behind bars.

Per the federal prosecutor’s office, 38-year-old Van Dyke took part in planning and carrying out the operation to capture Maduro for roughly one month starting December 8, 2025. Prosecutors allege that despite signing nondisclosure agreements pledging not to disclose “any classified or sensitive information” tied to the mission, the Army service member used this insider knowledge to place a series of wagers focused on Maduro no longer holding office by January 31, 2026.

FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a social media post, “This case centers on a U.S. soldier who reportedly exploited his official role to turn a profit from a just military operation.”

A phone number listed for Van Dyke in public records is no longer active. No legal representative has been listed for him in court filings as of yet.

Polymarket, one of the world’s largest prediction markets, reported that it had detected a user trading using classified government data, notified the U.S. Department of Justice, and “cooperated fully with their investigation.”

“Insider trading has no spot on Polymarket,” the firm noted in an official statement.

Second civil complaint lodged against the service member

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal body that oversees prediction markets, announced Thursday that it had submitted a parallel complaint against Van Dyke.

That complaint claims Van Dyke transferred $35,000 from his personal bank account to a cryptocurrency exchange account on December 26, just over one week before U.S. troops would fly into Caracas to detain Maduro.

Per the complaint, Van Dyke used over $32,500 to place multiple wagers on when Maduro would be removed from office. He made these bets between December 30 and January 2, with the vast majority being placed on the night of January 2, just hours before the first missiles struck Caracas.

In the early morning of January 3, President Donald Trump shared a photo on his social media platform of the newly detained Venezuelan leader, who was wearing a gray sweatshirt, headphones, and a blindfold.

The complaint states that the wagers Van Dyke placed on Maduro being removed from power yielded “over $404,000 in profits.” Bets on three additional Venezuela-linked contracts earned the soldier more than $5,000, per the filing.

Michael Selig, the commission’s chair, stated, “The defendant was given trusted access to confidential details about U.S. military operations, yet took steps that put U.S. national security at risk and endangered the lives of American service members.”

The enormous profits from these perfectly timed bets drew public scrutiny days after the raid, sparking bipartisan calls for tighter oversight of markets that allow people to bet on nearly any event.

Federal prosecutors allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke moved the majority of his winnings into a foreign cryptocurrency wallet before transferring the funds to a new brokerage account. He also requested that Polymarket delete his account, claiming he had lost access to the email linked to the profile, per the federal prosecutor’s office.

When questioned about the case on Thursday, Trump drew a comparison between the beleaguered soldier and late professional baseball player Pete Rose, who was banned from the sport over allegations that he bet on his own team.

“Unfortunately, the entire world has turned into something of a casino, and if you look at what’s happening across the globe, in Europe and everywhere else, people are engaging in these betting activities,” Trump told reporters.

The Trump administration has been a key supporter of the burgeoning prediction market industry during a high-stakes legal battle against states that aim to ban these platforms. The president’s oldest son serves as an advisor for both Polymarket and its rival Kalshi, and is an investor in Polymarket. Trump’s social media platform Truth Social is also rolling out its own cryptocurrency-powered prediction market named Truth Predict.

Nearly 20 years of Army service

Per the indictment, Van Dyke enlisted in the Army in 2008 and was promoted to the rank of master sergeant — the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army — in 2023. Federal prosecutors shared that he was part of the special forces community and assigned to Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, though the indictment provided few other specifics about his military career.

The filing noted that Van Dyke was photographed on the deck of a ship after the raid “wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying a rifle, standing beside three other people also dressed in U.S. military fatigues.”

The Pentagon directed questions about the case to the Army and the Justice Department.

Army officials refused to release Van Dyke’s service record. Generally, military branches are hesitant to share details about special forces personnel and take steps to protect their identities.

Wagers on geopolitical tensions face increased scrutiny

This high-profile indictment arrives as bipartisan lawmakers are debating legislation that would prohibit prediction markets from hosting wagers on war, assassinations, or terrorist acts.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a cluster of new accounts on Polymarket placed highly specific, perfectly timed wagers on whether the U.S. and Iran would agree to a ceasefire on April 7, netting hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for those new users. On the same day the AP released its report, the White House cautioned staff against using non-public information to trade on prediction markets.

On Wednesday, Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates who the firm alleged placed bets on the results of their own election races.

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Golden reported from Seattle, while Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.