U.S. soldier involved in Maduro capture accused of profiting from knowledge of raid on Polymarket

A U.S. special forces officer involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 US in an online betting market, federal officials announced Thursday.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to profit on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said.

He has been charged 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. He could face years in prison.

Van Dyke, 38, was involved in planning and carrying out the operation to capture Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. He signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, the office said.

Officials allege that Van Dyke created a Polymarket account toward the end of December and made about 13 bets taking the “Yes” position on such wagers as U.S. Forces being in Venezuela and Maduro being out by Jan. 31, 2026.

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media.

Officials allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke moved most of the money he won into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He also asked Polymarket to delete his account, saying he had lost access to his email associated with it, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.

A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. It is unclear if he has legal representation.

Polymarket said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.”

“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement on the social media platform X.

Part of special forces community

Van Dyke joined the Army in 2008 and, in 2023, was promoted to the rank of master sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army, according to the indictment.

Federal prosecutors confirmed that he was a senior enlisted soldier who was part of the special forces community and stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., but their indictment offered few other details about his military service.

However, the document says Van Dyke was photographed following the raid on the deck of 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 Department of Justice.

Army officials declined to provide Van Dyke’s service record.

Typically, the military services are reticent to offer details about members of the special forces and take measures to keep their identities secret.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.

On the same day the AP published the report, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets.

On Wednesday, another prediction market, Kalshi, fined and suspended three congressional candidates who the company said wagered on the outcome of their own elections.

Prediction markets let people wager on everything from sports to elections and have prompted bipartisan scrutiny from Congress and calls for stricter regulations.