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Fri, 24 Apr 2026

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 US soldier charged after winning $400,000 betting on removal of Maduro

Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly made trades on Polymarket on the basis of classified information, the justice department says.

* US special forces soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke has been arrested and charged with insider trading after allegedly betting on the removal of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro before it was publicly known.
* Van Dyke, stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, made over $409,000 from his bets on Polymarket, a crypto-powered platform, using classified information about Operation Absolute Resolve.
* The US Department of Justice alleges that Van Dyke created a Polymarket account and began trading on Maduro and Venezuela-related markets while in possession of nonpublic information.
* Van Dyke has been charged with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.
* The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has also filed a complaint against Van Dyke accusing him of engaging in insider trading.
* Polymarket said it referred the matter to the DOJ and cooperated with their investigation, stating that "insider trading has no place on Polymarket".
* US Attorney General Todd Blanche said that using classified information for personal financial gain is prohibited, while US President Donald Trump expressed concerns about prediction markets leading to insider trading.