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A U.S. special forces soldier who participated in the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the operation to win more than $400,000 on the online betting platform Polymarket.<\/p>\n
Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed Federal agents.<\/p>\n
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In a press release<\/a>, the Justice Department said U.S. Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke was charged with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain and theft of nonpublic government information.<\/p>\n Van Dyke also faces charges of \u201ccommodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n The DOJ alleges Van Dyke created an account on the crypto betting platform Polymarket on December 26, 2025, and made around 13 bets on Maduro- and Venezuela-related markets.<\/p>\n The soldier allegedly bet a total of around $33,034 on \u201cYES\u201d outcomes in questions about U.S. military action or invasion targeting Venezuela before January 31, 2026.<\/p>\n As a result of these bets, Van Dyke allegedly profited approximately $409,881 after U.S. Special Forces conducted a raid on Caracas and captured Maduro and his wife from the Venezuelan leader\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n The soldier then allegedly sent his winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before depositing them into a \u201cnewly created online brokerage account.\u201d<\/p>\n Crucial Quote<\/p>\n FBI Director Kash Patel commented on the arrest on X, saying<\/a>: \u201cThis involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation.\u201d In a follow-up post<\/a> highlighting the federal agency\u2019s work on Thursday, Patel identified Van Dyke as an \u201cActive-duty Green Beret.\u201d<\/p>\n How Has Polymarket Reacted To The Soldier\u2019s Arrest?<\/p>\n In a statement issued on X<\/a>, Polymarket wrote: \u201cLast month, we published our enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading. When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n How Has President Donald Trump Reacted?<\/p>\n When reporters at the Oval Office asked President Donald Trump about the charges he said he didn\u2019t know anything about the case before asking, \u201cWas he betting that they would get him or they wouldn\u2019t get him?\u201d When he was told the soldier allegedly bet on Maduro\u2019s removal, Trump said, \u201cThat\u2019s like Pete Rose betting on his own team\u2026Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good. But he bet on his own. I\u2019ll look into it.\u201d When asked if he was concerned about such insider betting, the president said: \u201cWell, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino\u2026I was never much in favor of it. I don\u2019t like it, conceptually. But it is what it is. No, I think that I\u2019m not happy with any of that stuff, but they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Tangent<\/p>\n Despite the president\u2019s apparent criticism of betting markets, the parent company of his Truth Social platform, Trump Media & Technology Group, has announced<\/a> plans to launch its own online prediction market in partnership with Crypto.com. The president\u2019s son, Donald Trump Jr., also serves<\/a> on Polymarket\u2019s advisory board, and his firm, 1789 Capital, has invested in the crypto betting platform.<\/p>\n Chief Critic<\/p>\n