Army Soldier Indicted After Making $400k on Nicolas Maduro Capture

A U.S. Army soldier has been indicted by the Justice Department for allegedly betting on the capture of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro by accessing classified information and using it for personal gain.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, of Fayetteville, N.C., allegedly made more than $400,000 by trading on Polymarket, a prediction marketplace, while also participating in the planning and execution of the U.S. military operation “Operation Absolute Resolve” to capture Maduro.

Van Dyke is charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count. He also faces one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of an unlawful monetary transaction carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

“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,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement on Thursday. 

“Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply,” he added.

The indictment was presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Meyers in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett in the Southern District of New York.

Allegations of Divulging Classified Info

Van Dyke has been an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Bragg, a military base in Fayetteville.

The charges allege that Van Dyke signed nondisclosure agreements promising to “never divulge, publish, or reveal by writing, words, conduct, or otherwise…any classified or sensitive information” relative to military operations.

The indictment takes special exception to Van Dyke’s use of his military access to make his trades, starting around Dec. 8, 2025, and continuing through at least Jan. 6, 2026.

Maduro and his wife were apprehended In the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 3, 2026, at a residence in Caracas, Venezuela.

Hours later, according to the indictment, U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of the successful operation was followed by Polymarket resolving several Maduro and Venezuela-related trades that aligned with “Maduro out by… January 31, 2026,” and “US forces in Venezuela by… January 31, 2026.”

As a result, Van Dyke won his wagers on those contracts, earning a grand total of approximately $409,881 after betting approximately $33,034 on those outcomes.

The indictment alleges on the same day of the operation, Van Dyke withdrew the majority of his allegedly unlawful proceeds from his Polymarket account, sending most of his proceeds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before depositing them into a newly created online brokerage account.

“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York in a statement. “The defendant allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit.”

Clayton called it clear insider trading, which is illegal under federal law.

Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain. Our Office will continue to hold accountable those who misuse confidential or classified information in a way that undermines and exploits our national security.

Van Dyke’s access as an Army soldier to the classified plans targeting Maduro was lucrative and involved multiple military incidents during the operation, according to the indictment.

The indictment also alleges Van Dyke took steps to conceal his identity as the trader in the Maduro and Venezuela-related markets, including allegedly requesting Polymarket to delete his account on or around Jan. 6, 2026, falsely claiming that he had lost access to the email address to which the account had been associated.

“That same day, Van Dyke changed the email registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account to an email address that was not subscribed to in his name, and which he had created on or about Dec. 14, 2025,” per the indictment.