Special Forces soldier won $400K in Polymarket bets on Maduro raid, feds say
Federal authorities have arrested and charged an Army Special Forces soldier with using classified information to place bets on the Jan. 3 raid that whisked Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro out of a secure compound and into U.S. custody.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, placed bets that totaled about $33,000 on the timing of U.S. operations in Venezuela, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. He allegedly netted more than $409,000 in winnings through Polymarket. Van Dyke was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, but also participated in the planning and execution of the Maduro raid.
Attorneys for Van Dyke could not be immediately reached for comment.
Van Dyke began making the bets not long after he signed a U.S. government nondisclosure agreement for “Western Hemisphere Operations” on Dec. 8, the indictment said. He created a Polymarket account on Dec. 26 using a VPN and connected to the betting website through an exit node, which made it look like he was in a foreign country.
From Dec. 27 through Jan. 2, he placed bets on Maduro- and Venezuela-related markets. In one trade, he purchased more than 600 shares of the market bet that U.S. forces would be in Venezuela by the end of January.
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The indictment does not disclose Van Dyke’s exact role in the Venezuela mission. However, it said he was aboard one of the Navy vessels that had helped stage the raid. Just hours after Maduro was captured on Jan. 3 and brought aboard the USS Iwo Jima, Van Dyke uploaded a photo to his Google account depicting him on the deck of a ship at sea, at sunrise, wearing military fatigues and carrying a rifle, according to the indictment.
After the mission, the indictment said Van Dyke withdrew his winnings from his Polymarket account and sent the proceeds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault, which advertises that it generates interest for depositors by lending cryptocurrency and tangible assets to others. About two weeks later, on Jan. 16, Van Dyke allegedly transferred the funds to a cryptocurrency exchange account and then deposited the funds into a newly-created brokerage account.
Shortly after the White House announced Maduro’s capture, social media was flooded with reports of unusual trading in Maduro-related contracts on Polymarket. Van Dyke then took steps to conceal his identity as the trader, according to the indictment. On Jan. 6, the document alleges, Van Dyke asked Polymarket to delete his account and changed the email registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account to an email address that was not subscribed to in his name.
The rise of prediction markets and bets on them have intersected with U.S. military action, with several contracts on prediction markets for conflicts such as the ongoing war with Iran.