US Soldier Accused of Selling $400K Polymarket Insider to Maduro’s Removal

A US Army soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was charged Thursday with using classified information. Trade on Polymarket around the January ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, marking the first major case of alleged trading in crypto-prediction markets using US government secrets.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, is said to have obtained information about Operation Absolute Resolve – the military operation against Maduro – and placed 13 bets on results related to Venezuela between December 26, 2025 and January 2, 2026, according to court documents.

US special forces arrested Maduro and his wife at their Caracas home in the early hours of January 3. Hours later, the president declared the operation a success. Van Dyke’s bets, which totaled $33,034 in the first sale, netted a profit of $409,881.

Benefits grabbed the headlines in Januaryalthough at first it was not known who made the bet. However, this huge success raised suspicions of insider trading.

Three days after the announcement of the operation, Van Dyke contacted Polymarket to request the deletion of his account, falsely claiming that he had lost access to a contact address, the records show. Federal prosecutors have determined that traditional insider trading laws apply to futures markets.

“Forecast markets are not a place for the misuse of confidential or confidential information for personal gain,” said US Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement. “The defendant alleges that he breached a fiduciary duty to the United States Government by using the information of dangerous military groups to bet on the timing and outcome, in order to make a profit.”

“This clearly constitutes insider trading and is illegal under federal law.” Those responsible for protecting our nation’s secrets have a responsibility to protect them and military personnel, and not to use this information for financial gain.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the enforcement will be related to emerging crypto platforms. “The availability of prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information are fully operational,” Blanche said.

Van Dyke faces five federal charges, including three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, wire fraud, and theft of non-public government information. Both violations carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, while the wire fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, according to the Department of Justice.

CFTC price he complained to himself Thursday with the Department of Justice.

“I have made it clear that anyone who engages in fraudulent, fraudulent, or fraudulent practices in any of our markets will face the full force of the law,” CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a statement. “The defendant was given secrets about what the US was doing but he took action that put US national security at risk and put American lives at risk.”