An Army Green Beret soldier pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a New York federal court to charges that he used inside knowledge about the raid to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to win more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, is charged with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, wire and commodities fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction. Federal prosecutors said he wagered about $33,000 and won more than $404,000.
Sgt. Van Dyke was released on $250,000 bail, and his travel was restricted to portions of New York, North Carolina, California and points necessary to travel between, The Associated Press reported.
According to court records, Sgt. Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve, the secret mission to capture Mr. Maduro on Jan. 3. Between Dec. 30, 2025, and Jan. 2, 2026, the special forces soldier used that classified information to purchase more than 436,000 “Yes” shares of the “Maduro Out by Jan. 31, 2026?” wager listed on Polymarket.
“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” said Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The case marks the first time the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has charged someone with insider trading involving “event contracts,” like those offered by Polymarket.
Federal officials said Sgt. Van Dyke began transferring and disguising the proceeds from his scheme following the success of Operation Absolute Resolve. He withdrew his funds from the Polymarket scheme and moved them to a foreign cryptocurrency “vault,” officials said. He later deposited the proceeds into a brokerage account.
By April, the accounts contained a balance of about $415,000, which federal officials said represents proceeds traceable to Sgt. Van Dyke’s Polymarket bets.
Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan said he was grateful the Department of Justice acknowledged that the company is cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
“The reality is we work proactively with all relevant authorities on any suspicious activity on our marketplace. We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated throughout the process,” Mr. Coplan posted last week on X.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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