U.S. Special Forces Sergeant Arrested Over Bets on Maduro’s Capture Using Classified Information

Overview

• Federal prosecutors arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke on Thursday, alleging he turned classified details from a Venezuela operation into roughly $410,000 in profits on the Polymarket prediction site.
• Charging papers say he funded an account in late December and made 13 YES wagers totaling about $33,000 on contracts tied to U.S. forces entering Venezuela and Nicolás Maduro leaving power before either was public.
• After prices spiked when Maduro was captured in early January, prosecutors say he withdrew the winnings, routed the money to an overseas crypto vault, and then asked Polymarket to delete his account.
• Van Dyke, who was assigned to Joint Special Operations Command and had signed a confidentiality pledge for Western Hemisphere operations, faces counts under the Commodity Exchange Act, wire fraud, and illegal monetary transactions.
• The Justice Department brought what reporters describe as its first insider case linked to a prediction market, while the CFTC filed a parallel civil action under its so‑called Eddie Murphy rule as Polymarket said it flagged the trades and cooperated.