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A U.S. special forces soldier charged in connection with prediction-market trades tied to a January mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was granted bond on Friday in North Carolina, setting the stage for further proceedings in federal court in New York. The magistrate judge ordered Gannon Ken Van Dyke to report to a New York federal courthouse by Tuesday to continue his case, according to Associated Press reporting from the hearing.

At the nearly hourlong hearing, Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, provided little comment while appearing before the federal magistrate in North Carolina. A federal public defender was appointed for him, and the defender declined to comment afterward, the AP reported.

The court granted Van Dyke a $250,000 unsecured bond, which did not require him to put up money. Van Dyke, 38, was charged Thursday with the 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 prosecutors said Van Dyke used access to classified information about the mission to capture Maduro to win money on Polymarket, a prediction market where users can trade on a wide range of outcomes. The charges tie the alleged trades to the period surrounding the Maduro operation, with prosecutors saying Van Dyke was involved in planning and execution for about a month.

Prosecutors said Van Dyke signed nondisclosure agreements promising not to divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations. They said he then made a series of bets on Polymarket related to whether Maduro would be out of power by Jan. 31, connecting the alleged insider access to the resulting profits.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post that the case involves “a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation.” In a separate post, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said the company flagged the suspicious activity, turned it over to the government and cooperated with the investigation, adding that “Every trade is public, permanent, and auditable” and that “Bad actors leave a trail.”

Prosecutors said the criminal case could lead to up to 10 years on four counts, and up to 20 years on a fifth count, though the exact sentencing exposure would be determined by the court. Van Dyke was also the subject of a parallel action by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which announced it had filed a complaint Thursday.

In that CFTC complaint, the regulator alleged Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26, more than a week before U.S. forces flew into Caracas and seized Maduro. The CFTC said Van Dyke then placed Polymarket bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with most bets placed the night of Jan. 2, just hours before the first missiles struck Caracas, and that the bets resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” according to the complaint.

Michael Selig, the CFTC chairman, said the defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations but “took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” according to the AP report. The AP also reported that Van Dyke’s listed phone number was not in service.

The case has drawn attention to how prediction markets operate as scrutiny grows in Congress and among state governments. The AP reported that lawmakers have pushed for guardrails around insider-trading risks, citing highly specific trades related to the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran and wagers on President Donald Trump’s next moves, while noting that the Trump administration has been supportive of the industry’s expansion.

The AP reported that Trump’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi, and is a Polymarket investor. It also said Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching a prediction market called Truth Predict.

In Fayetteville, Van Dyke recently moved into a home, according to neighbor Larry Duncan, the AP reported. Duncan said he introduced himself, asked whether Van Dyke needed assistance, and told him, “You look like special forces,” adding that Van Dyke smiled and remained quiet, kind of secretive, while Duncan said he recognized the way special forces personnel carry themselves from his work on a contract at Fort Bragg.

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