The U.S. Division of Justice arrested a grasp sergeant with the Military on allegations he positioned wagers on the raid of Nicolas Maduro forward of taking part within the operation to detain former Venezuelan chief.
The DOJ unsealed an indictment Thursday charging Gannon Ken Van Dyke with the illegal use of confidential authorities data for private acquire, theft of nonpublic authorities data and fraud costs, alleging he used his information of the forthcoming raid on Venezuela to put $33,000 in bets, successful about $400,000 after the raid.
“The defendant allegedly violated the belief positioned in him by the USA Authorities by utilizing categorized details about a delicate army operation to put bets on the timing and final result of that very operation, all to show a revenue,” U.S. Legal professional Jay Clayton mentioned in an announcement. “That’s clear insider buying and selling and is illegitimate underneath federal legislation.”
Van Dyke allegedly created a Polymarket account on Dec. 26, 2025 and positioned 13 bets by Jan. 2, 2026 on contracts anticipating whether or not U.S. forces would land in Venezuela, take away Maduro, invade Venezuela and related contracts.
In tandem with the felony pursuit, the U.S. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee is pursuing an insider buying and selling grievance in federal courtroom, the company mentioned in a Thursday assertion.
“The defendant was entrusted with confidential details about U.S. operations and but took motion that endangered U.S. nationwide safety and put the lives of American service members in hurt’s manner,” mentioned CFTC Chairman Mike Selig.
Van Dyke is an lively responsibility soldier with the U.S. Military Particular Forces, colloquially referred to as “inexperienced berets,” and was based mostly out of Fort Bragg. In accordance with the indictment, he “was concerned within the planning and execution” of the army operation to detain Maduro.
After the raid, Van Dyke allegedly withdrew the funds, transformed the winnings to a bridged model of USDC, despatched them to “a overseas cryptocurrency ‘vault'” after which started withdrawing funds and transferring them right into a brokerage account, the submitting mentioned.
The submitting famous that the actual fact somebody had made a large revenue on these Polymarket bets had been seen by information organizations, and it alleged that Van Dyke requested Polymarket to delete his account and adjusted his e-mail to aim to hide his id.
In a put up on X (previously Twitter), Polymarket mentioned, “after we recognized a person buying and selling on categorized authorities data, we referred the matter to the DOJ [and] cooperated with their investigation.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, throughout a press scrum, instructed reporters that he would look into allegations of federal reporters inserting prediction market bets utilizing confidential data, Bloomberg reported.
“The entire world, sadly, has develop into considerably of a on line casino,” he mentioned. “And also you take a look at at what’s occurring everywhere in the world, in Europe and each place they’re doing these betting issues. I used to be by no means a lot in favor of it. I don’t prefer it conceptually.”
UPDATE (April 23, 2026, 20:35 UTC): Provides CFTC, Trump feedback.
UPDATE (April 23, 2026, 20:45 UTC): Provides Polymarket put up, clarifies function of inexperienced berets.