{"id":547490,"date":"2026-04-24T02:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547490\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:22:09","slug":"us-soldier-charged-after-winning-400000-betting-on-removal-of-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547490\/","title":{"rendered":"US soldier charged after winning $400,000 betting on removal of Venezuela&#8217;s Nicolas Maduro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a statement posted on social media on Thursday, Polymarket said: &#8220;When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ &amp; cooperated with their investigation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The company added: &#8220;Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today&#8217;s arrest is proof the system works.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;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,&#8221; said acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">US Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, where the case will proceed, added that prediction markets &#8220;are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The justice department officials said that as a soldier Van Dyke signed nondisclosure agreements in which he promised to &#8220;&#8216;never divulge, publish, or reveal by writing, words, conduct, or otherwise . . . any classified or sensitive information&#8217; relating to military operations&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Federal prosecutors allege that starting from 8 December 2025 until at least 6 January 2026, Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve and had access to sensitive, nonpublic, classified information about that operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an independent US federal agency, said it had also filed a complaint against Van Dyke accusing him of engaging in insider trading.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Asked about the alleged betting during an unrelated event on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had not heard about it but would look into it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When asked about concerns that prediction markets could lead to insider trading, the president said he is &#8220;not happy with any of that stuff&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what&#8217;s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they&#8217;re doing these betting things,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was never much in favour of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement posted on social media on Thursday, Polymarket said: &#8220;When we identified a user trading on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-547490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}