OAN Staff Lillian Mann
7:20 PM – Thursday, April 23, 2026
Federal authorities have arrested and charged a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier for purportedly profiting from insider information regarding the December raid that captured Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
According to the unsealed indictment, Gannon Ken Van Dyke used the prediction market platform Polymarket to wager approximately $33,034 on the success of the operation. These bets were placed just days before President Donald Trump officially announced the capture.
Van Dyke’s suspiciously well-timed gamble reportedly netted him more than $409,000 in profits.
“In total, Van Dyke made approximately 13 bets from Dec. 27, 2025, through the evening of Jan. 26,” the Justice Department said. “Following his successful trading relating to Maduro- and Venezuela-related contracts, Van Dyke allegedly sent most of his proceeds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before depositing them into a newly created online brokerage account,” the Justice Department said.
After placing the bets, Van Dyke then allegedly tried to hide the evidence of the trades by attempting to delete his Polymarket account and change the email address registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account, the indictment noted.
“The same day of the operation, Van Dyke withdrew the majority of his allegedly unlawful proceeds from his Polymarket account,” the DOJ added, reporting that three days after the Maudro raid Van Dyke had “asked Polymarket to delete his Polymarket account, falsely claiming that he had lost access to the email address.”
Van Dyke was criminally charged with “unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction,” according to the indictment.
“The charges arise from an alleged scheme in which Van Dyke used sensitive classified information to make wagers on Polymarket,” astatement from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates Polymarket, said it is also charging Van Dyke with civil charges. The agency added that it “seeks restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.”
“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company added in a post on X. “Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
“The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino,” Trump said when asked more generally about betting markets and bets placed on major global events. “I’m not happy with any of that stuff,” he added.
In a Thursday statement acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated, “Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain.”
FBI Director Kash Patel also commented on the issue, saying that the indictment “makes clear no one is above the law, and this FBI will do whatever it takes to defend the homeland and safeguard our nation’s secrets.”
The events Van Dyke’s arrest followed just a day after prediction market Kalshi’s probe discovered three political candidates who were caught betting on their own 2026 primary races.
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