The U.S. Division of Justice arrested a grasp sergeant with the Military on allegations he positioned wagers on the raid of Nicolas Maduro forward of taking part within the operation to detain former Venezuelan chief.
The DOJ unsealed an indictment Thursday charging Gannon Ken Van Dyke with the illegal use of confidential authorities info for private acquire, theft of nonpublic authorities info and fraud fees, alleging he used his information of the forthcoming raid on Venezuela to position $33,000 in bets, successful about $400,000 after the raid.
“The defendant allegedly violated the belief positioned in him by america Authorities by utilizing labeled details about a delicate navy operation to position bets on the timing and end result of that very operation, all to show a revenue,” U.S. Lawyer Jay Clayton stated in a statement. “That’s clear insider buying and selling and is prohibited underneath federal regulation.”
Van Dyke allegedly created a Polymarket account on Dec. 26, 2025 and positioned 13 bets by means of Jan. 2, 2026 on contracts anticipating whether or not U.S. forces would land in Venezuela, take away Maduro, invade Venezuela and comparable contracts.
In tandem with the felony pursuit, the U.S. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee is pursuing an insider trading complaint in federal court docket, the company stated in a Thursday assertion.
“The defendant was entrusted with confidential details about U.S. operations and but took motion that endangered U.S. nationwide safety and put the lives of American service members in hurt’s manner,” stated CFTC Chairman Mike Selig.
Van Dyke is an energetic responsibility soldier with the U.S. Military Particular Forces, colloquially often called “inexperienced berets,” and was primarily based out of Fort Bragg. In line with the indictment, he “was concerned within the planning and execution” of the navy operation to detain Maduro.
After the raid, Van Dyke allegedly withdrew the funds, transformed the winnings to a bridged model of USDC, despatched them to “a overseas cryptocurrency ‘vault'” after which started withdrawing funds and transferring them right into a brokerage account, the submitting stated.
The submitting famous that the actual fact somebody had made a large revenue on these Polymarket bets had been seen by news organizationsand it alleged that Van Dyke requested Polymarket to delete his account and adjusted his e mail to try to hide his identification.
In a post on X (previously Twitter), Polymarket stated, “after we recognized a consumer buying and selling on labeled authorities info, we referred the matter to the DOJ (and) cooperated with their investigation.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, throughout a press scrum, advised reporters that he would look into allegations of federal reporters inserting prediction market bets utilizing confidential info, Bloomberg reported.
“The entire world, sadly, has grow to be considerably of a on line casino,” he stated. “And also you take a look at at what’s happening everywhere in the world, in Europe and each place they’re doing these betting issues. I used to be by no means a lot in favor of it. I don’t prefer it conceptually.”
UPDATE (April 23, 2026, 20:35 UTC): Provides CFTC, Trump feedback.
UPDATE (April 23, 2026, 20:45 UTC): Provides Polymarket submit, clarifies function of inexperienced berets.
