A U.S. Army special forces soldier who helped capture Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has been charged with using classified information to bet on the mission on Polymarket, a prediction marketplace, federal authorities said on Thursday.
The soldier, Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, made more than $400,000 by betting on different outcomes related to Venezuela after learning of the operation, federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. said.
An indictment filed in Manhattan federal court says Sergeant Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the “planning and execution” of the seizure of Mr. Maduro and was making bets up to Jan. 2, the day before the seizure of the Venezuelan leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a Caracas compound.
The sergeant bet on events related to Mr. Maduro and Venezuela 13 times in all, including “bets on the timing and outcome” of the operation to remove Mr. Maduro, according to the indictment and Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The indictment represents one of the highest-profile episodes of a U.S. government employee using classified information to make money on prediction markets — a threat to national security that has led the White House to warn its staff to avoid such insider trading. The warning came amid a surge of suspicious trading related to the war with Iran.
Companies that run prediction markets have come under increased scrutiny in recent months. The Senate and House are considering legislation to limit government officials’ use of one popular site, Kalshi, and states are also considering stronger regulations.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain.”
President Trump, when asked on Thursday about government employees using prediction markets, said, “The whole world unfortunately has become somewhat of a casino.”
He added, “I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually. It is what it is. I’m not happy with any of that stuff.”
Polymarket said in a statement Thursday that it had published new rules to tighten insider trading last month. It added that when it identified a user trading on classified government information, it referred the matter to the Justice Department and cooperated with its investigation.
In the hours before American troops captured Mr. Maduro on Jan. 3, it was reported that a Polymarket user placed a $32,000 bet that Mr. Maduro would be out of power by the end of January, and profited by more than $400,000. The Polymarket statement and the amounts specified in the indictment suggest the charges announced on Thursday are related to that bet.
According to the indictment, the sergeant tried to hide his proceeds by moving them several times, first to a foreign cryptocurrency vault, then to a personal crypto account and finally to a newly created brokerage account. After news of unusual trades related to Mr. Maduro’s capture began to circulate, Sergeant Van Dyke sought to delete his Polymarket account, falsely claiming he had lost access to the email address associated with it.
The indictment charges Sergeant Van Dyke with five counts: unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain; theft of nonpublic government information; commodities fraud; wire fraud; and engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
Sergeant Van Dyke was to be presented on Thursday before a federal magistrate judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina, and was expected to be sent to Manhattan for prosecution, the office of the U.S. attorney in Manhattan said. A lawyer for the sergeant could not be identified to seek comment on his behalf.
The question of how to regulate prediction markets has become more pressing for state officials in recent months, given a sudden boom in usage. The markets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and bettors are often able to circumvent state-level restrictions on more traditional gambling because of the way the bets are classified legally.
On Thursday, the commission filed suit against Sergeant Van Dyke, asking that a court bar him from future trades and order him to pay full restitution.
Sergeant Van Dyke has been an active-duty soldier since about 2008, the indictment says, adding that since 2023, he has been a master sergeant with U.S. Army Special Forces. Ten years into his service, he was given special access to classified information, signing a formal agreement in which he promised to never divulge the contents of that information. Last year, he signed a similar agreement related to military operations in the Western Hemisphere.
In the fall of last year, Polymarket began offering users the ability to bet on whether certain events involving Venezuela and Mr. Maduro would or would not occur, the indictment says.
In September, Polymarket had an offering regarding the likelihood of “U.S. forces in Venezuela by” certain dates. In November, offerings included the likelihood of Mr. Maduro being “out” of or removed from power by a series of dates. In mid-December, there was an offering concerning the future likelihood of the United States invading Venezuela by Jan. 31.
On the evening of Jan. 2, the day before the Maduro capture, Sergeant Van Dyke spent thousands of dollars buying “yes” shares on “Maduro out” by Jan. 31 and “U.S. forces in Venezuela” by the same date.
The next day, just hours after the military apprehended the Venezuelan leader and transported him to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, the indictment says, a photograph was taken and later uploaded to the sergeant’s Google account.
As the indictment describes the photo, it depicts Sergeant Van Dyke “on what appears to be the deck of a ship at sea, at sunrise wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues.”
Chris Cameron contributed reporting.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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