A U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant who helped execute the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was arrested Thursday for allegedly using classified information to place winning bets on the very operation, where he pocketed more than $400,000 in the process.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, was charged with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Van Dyke, who has been on active duty since 2008, was allegedly directly involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve — the covert military mission that captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their Caracas residence in the predawn hours of January 3.
He had also signed nondisclosure agreements pledging to “never divulge, publish, or reveal by writing, words, conduct, or otherwise any classified or sensitive information” related to military operations.
The Justice Department said he violated that oath weeks before the mission launched.
Starting December 26, just one week before the raid, Van Dyke opened a Polymarket account and placed 13 bets totaling $33,034. Every single wager took a “Yes” position on whether U.S. forces would be in Venezuela by January 31, whether Maduro would be out of office by that date, whether the U.S. would invade Venezuela, or whether Trump would invoke the War Powers Act against the country. The biggest single bet was for $32,537 that Maduro would be removed from office.
It returned a 1,242% profit of $404,222.
When the operation succeeded and Trump announced the capture, Polymarket resolved the contracts in Van Dyke’s favor. He withdrew most of the proceeds the same day.
Then he tried to cover his tracks, the Justice Department said.
After news reports flagged unusual trading activity in Maduro-related markets, Van Dyke asked Polymarket to delete his account, falsely claiming he had lost access to his email address, the DOJ said. He also allegedly changed the email registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account to one created under a different name, which he had quietly set up weeks earlier. The DOJ said he then moved most of his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault before funneling them into a newly created brokerage account.
Polymarket said it identified the suspicious trading and reported it to federal authorities.
“When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ and cooperated with their investigation,” the company said. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
Trump, asked about the arrest at an unrelated Oval Office event, compared Van Dyke to baseball legend Pete Rose.
“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Trump said. “I’ll look into it.” On the broader prediction market insider trading problem that has plagued his administration, Trump added, “The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino. I’m not happy with any of that stuff.”
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton called the case a clear breach of military trust.
“The defendant allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit,” Clayton said.
Van Dyke faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge alone. The case marks the first time the DOJ has prosecuted insider trading on a prediction market platform.