US soldier charged with making over $511k on Maduro removal bets
WASHINGTON – A US Army soldier involved in the capture of Mr Nicolas Maduro has been charged with making US$400,000 (S$511,306) by betting on the removal of the ousted Venezuelan leader, the Justice Department said on April 23.
In the weeks leading up to Mr Maduro’s Jan 3 capture, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a master sergeant with US Army Special Forces, used sensitive classified information to make wagers on prediction market Polymarket that US forces would enter Venezuela and that Mr Maduro would be out of power.
A grand jury in Manhattan federal court indicted Van Dyke, 38, on charges of unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.
The case appeared to mark the first time the department had brought insider trading charges involving a prediction market.
“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,” Acting US Attorney-General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
Defence attorney information for Van Dyke was not immediately available. He is expected to be presented before a judge in North Carolina later on April 23, the Justice Department said.
The Pentagon deferred comment to the Justice Department.
Asked by reporters about the arrest, President Donald Trump said he was not familiar with the case but that it reminded him of Pete Rose, who was banned from Major League Baseball over a gambling scandal.
“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Mr Trump said.
“If he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team. I’ll look into it.”
In a post on X, Polymarket said it had referred the matter to the Justice Department.
“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works,” the post read.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission also brought civil charges against Van Dyke.
Van Dyke has been an active-duty soldier in the US Army since 2008 and had most recently been stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said Van Dyke was involved in the “planning and execution” of the Maduro capture, but did not go into detail.
The indictment made note of a photograph Van Dyke uploaded to his Google account in the early morning of Jan 3, hours after the US military brought Mr Maduro to the USS Iwo Jima amphibious assault ship.
“That photograph depicts Van Dyke on what appears to be the deck of a ship at sea, at sunrise wearing US military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues,” the indictment read. REUTERS