A US soldier pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to Fees to use secret information about the raid and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolàs Maduro to win $400,000 on the betting site Polymarket.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke is a 38-year-old US special forces soldier who helped plan and carry out Maduro’s capture. He bet on PolyMarket’s Dec. 26 vote that Maduro would be out of power on Jan. 31. Early on January 3, Maduro and his wife were captured by the US Army, fulfilling PolyMarket’s request.
Following his successful bets related to the Maduro results, Van Dyke allegedly withdrew the majority of his earnings from his Polymarket account and transferred them to a foreign cryptocurrency vault. He then took steps to conceal his identity as a trader in the Maduro market and requested the deletion of his account on January 6, saying he had lost access to the email address associated with his account. After According to CEO Shayne Coplan, Polymarket reported the suspicious activity and turned it over to the government.
Van Duke was later charged for unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, merchandise fraud, wire fraud and conducting an unlawful monetary transaction. The FBI director announced that it is clear from the indictments that no one is above the law and that Van Dyke not only engaged in insider trading by using classified information for financial gain, but also betrayed his comrades.
Van Dyke pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan, and his defense attorney, Zach Intrater, maintained he committed no crimes. This case is sparking controversy as some states have begun pushing for it Ban from prediction betting platforms like Polymarket. Essentially, people enter predictions on everything from the outcome of a basketball game to a world political event, and then place binary bets (yes or no), with a minimum dollar amount tied to the success of their vote.
There are fears that these unregulated markets create a breeding ground for insider trading and other illegal gambling activities. However, the Trump administration appears to support these markets; with Donald Trump Jr. joining Polymarket as a strategic advisor in 2025 and the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CTFC) sue individual states to remind them that only the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets in all 50 states, even if gambling is illegal in that state.
