The Justice Department charged Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a U.S. special forces soldier involved in the January operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, alleging he used access to classified information about the mission to profit on the online prediction market Polymarket, federal officials announced Thursday.
Prosecutors said Van Dyke was part of the planning and execution of the operation for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025. They said that even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising not to divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, he allegedly used that information to place bets tied to whether Maduro would be out of power by Jan. 31, 2026.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Van Dyke faces multiple charges, including unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. Federal officials said he could face years in prison.
FBI Director Kash Patel described the allegations in a social media post, saying, “This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation.” Federal court records reviewed by AP did not yet show an attorney for Van Dyke, and a telephone number listed for him in public records was not in service.
Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets, said it had found someone trading on classified government information and alerted the U.S. Department of Justice. In a statement, the company said it “cooperated with their investigation” and added, “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket.”
Separate from the criminal case, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Thursday that it filed a parallel complaint. The agency said Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26, 2025—more than a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro—then used more than $32,500 to make bets about when Maduro might be removed from power.
The CFTC said those bets were placed between Dec. 30, 2025, and Jan. 2, 2026, with most occurring the night of Jan. 2, “just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas.” The agency said the bets Van Dyke placed on Maduro leaving power resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” and it said bets on three other Venezuela-related contracts netted the soldier more than $5,000.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said in remarks accompanying the complaint that “The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way.” The criminal case and the CFTC complaint drew broader attention after the raid as the alleged profits and the timing of the trades surfaced publicly, according to prosecutors and regulators.
In response to questions from reporters Thursday, President Donald Trump compared the case to late baseball star Pete Rose, saying the “whole world” had become “somewhat of a casino” and pointing to betting activity “all over the world and Europe.” The Trump administration has been an ally of prediction-market companies in legal fights with states seeking to ban the platforms, and Trump’s comments came as regulators and lawmakers consider proposals that would restrict prediction markets from allowing bets on certain real-world events.
Prosecutors said Van Dyke joined the Army in 2008 and, in 2023, was promoted to master sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army. Federal prosecutors said he was part of the special forces community and was stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, though the indictment provided few additional details about his military service.
The indictment said Van Dyke was photographed after the raid on a ship “wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues.” The Pentagon referred questions on the case to the Army and the Justice Department, and Army officials declined to provide Van Dyke’s service record.
The charges come amid growing scrutiny of prediction markets for wagers tied to geopolitical developments. Earlier in April, AP reported that new Polymarket accounts made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, producing hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for those accounts, and the White House warned staff not to use private information to trade on such platforms. On Wednesday, Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates that the company said wagered on the outcomes of their own elections.