A U.S. special forces soldier pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Manhattan federal court to charges alleging he used classified information connected to a mission to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to win more than $400,000 on Polymarket, the prediction market.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered the plea after prosecutors charged him 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. Van Dyke was released on $250,000 bail, and the court restricted his travel to parts of New York, North Carolina, California and travel routes necessary to move between those locations.
In court, prosecutors said the evidence in the case would include information obtained through grand jury subpoenas, cryptocurrency exchange records, search warrants and social media accounts. The government also pointed to Van Dyke’s involvement in the planning and execution of the Maduro capture mission, according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors said Van Dyke had signed nondisclosure agreements centered on the mission’s operations, but later placed a series of bets involving whether Maduro would be out of power by Jan. 31. The complaint says the bets totaled $33,000 and resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits.”
Van Dyke is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, and he was granted bond after a court hearing in North Carolina last week, according to the AP report. With the case now continuing in New York, he is scheduled to return to court on June 8 for a pretrial conference.
Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Zach Intrater told Judge Margaret M. Garnett he doubts there will be many disputes arising from “the actual event,” but said he expects the case will turn on motions he files on behalf of his client. Coplan, the Polymarket CEO, said the platform flagged the suspicious activity and turned it over to the government.
The case comes as prediction markets—where users can trade or wager on outcomes—face heavy scrutiny amid policymakers’ calls for tighter regulation. The Trump administration has supported the expansion of such platforms, and the AP report said the president’s eldest son is an adviser for Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi, and is a Polymarket investor. It also said Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.’s Truth Social is launching a prediction market called Truth Predict.
As covered in a prior MSI report on April 24, federal prosecutors charged Van Dyke with using classified information in connection with the Maduro raid bet. This week’s plea adds the next step in the litigation as the court sets the pretrial conference date.