A US Army soldier has been arrested on insider trading charges after being accused of betting on a market predicting the timing of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s capture by the military.
Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke won nearly $410,000 betting on Polymarket and he accused Department of Justice on charges of unlawful use of classified government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, commodity fraud, wire fraud and money laundering announced yesterday.
“As alleged in the indictment, Van Dyke participated in the planning and execution of the US military operation, Operation Absolute Resolve, to capture Nicolás Maduro, and Van Dyke used classified information related to that operation for personal gain,” the DOJ said.
Van Dyke, 38, a North Carolina native stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, has been an active-duty soldier since 2008 and a master sergeant in the U.S. Army Special Forces since 2023, according to the indictment. He was bound by nondisclosure agreements that prohibit the release of classified or sensitive military information.
Van Dyke allegedly started betting about a week before Maduro’s arrest on January 3. He was indicted in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“Van Dyke won his bets on these contracts” and “earned approximately $409,881,” the DOJ said. He then “sent most of his proceeds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before depositing them into a newly created online brokerage account” and “took steps to conceal his identity as a trader in markets linked to Maduro and Venezuela,” the DOJ said.
Trump: “It’s like ‘betting on Pete Rose’s own team.’
The DOJ described the bets as follows:
Allegedly, on or about December 26, 2025, Van Dyke created a Polymarket account, funded it, and began trading in markets linked to Maduro and Venezuela. In total, Van Dyk made approximately 13 bets from December 27, 2025 to the evening of January 26. All of these bets were “YES” on “US Forces in Venezuela… until January 31, 2026”; “Maduro … until January 31, 2026”; “Will the US invade Venezuela by January 31?”; or “Trump Invokes War Powers Against Venezuela By January 31st.” Van Dyke bet a total of approximately $33,034 on these results while having confidential non-public information about Operation Absolute Decision.
When President Trump was asked about Van Dyke at the White House on Thursday, he compared the betting to “Pete Rose betting on his team.” According to CNBC. “Pat Rose, they kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his team,” Trump said. “Now, if he bet against his team, that wouldn’t be good, but he bet on his team. I’ll look into it.”
