Washington (QNN)- A US Special Forces soldier involved in the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has been arrested after using classified information to place bets on his removal on Polymarket before it became public, winning more than $409,000.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Gannon Ken Van Dyke after he made trades on Polymarket on the basis of classified information.
"That is clear insider trading and is illegal under federal law," justice department officials said.
Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier in the US Army stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, won more than $409,000 (£303,702) as a result of his bets.
US forces abducted Maduro and his wife from their compound in Caracas in a night-time raid on 3 January, and brought them to New York to face allegations of weapon and drug offences, which they deny.
Van Dyke placed bets on the timing and outcome of the operation "all to turn a profit", the justice department said in a statement on Thursday.
The DOJ said that on or about 26 December 2025, Van Dyke created a Polymarket account and began trading on Maduro and Venezuela-related markets.
He is accused of making bets of more than $33,000 (£24,500) while in possession of classified nonpublic information about "Operation Absolute Resolve."
In a statement posted on social media on Thursday, Polymarket said: "When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation."
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, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday.
Federal prosecutors said that starting from 8 December 2025 until at least 6 January 2026, Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of the abduction of Madura operation and had access to sensitive, nonpublic, classified information about that operation.
Van Dyke used the prediction market platform 13 times to bet on topics including whether US forces would “invade” Venezuela and when Maduro would be removed from office.
Asked about the betting during an unrelated event on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had not heard about it but would look into it.
When asked about concerns that prediction markets could lead to insider trading, the president said he is "not happy with any of that stuff".
Administration officials and close advisers to Trump, including his son Donald Trump Jr, maintain ties to the prediction market industry.
Trump Jr was named a “strategic adviser” to the prediction market Kalshi in January 2025, shortly before his father was sworn in.
In May 2025, less than five months into Trump’s second term, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission dropped its legal fight against Kalshi, paving the way for bets to be placed on political events like elections.
Since then, prediction markets have proliferated in the US, with some bets raising questions about the prospect of insider trading.
There has long been suspicion that political or military actors are using the platform to profit from decisions they are aware of.
Thursday’s indictment comes one day after Kalshi revealed it had fined and suspended three users who were candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. All three had placed bets on the outcomes of their own races.
In February, Israel arrested a number of soldiers suspected of placing bets off of classified information they had encountered. The indictment comes after Kan public television reported in January that one Polymarket user won over $152,000 betting that Israel would attack Iran in June. The user bet tens of thousands of dollars on lines including: ”Israel will strike Iran on Friday"; "Israel will strike Iran by the end of June"; "Israel will strike in Iran by July" and that “Israel will end its war by July.”
