Federal authorities arrested and charged a U.S. special forces soldier who is accused of using classified information about the raid that removed Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro from office to make prediction market bets.
The soldier was identified as Gannon Ken Van Dyke in a news release announcing the indictment.
Van Dyke “bet a total of approximately $33,034” on the Maduro operation on the prediction market platform Polymarket, federal authorities said. He ultimately made more than $409,000 as a result of the bets placed on the U.S. operation, an unsealed indictment alleges.
Authorities said he “participated in the planning and execution of the U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro.”
“In total, Van Dyke made approximately 13 bets from Dec. 27, 2025, through the evening of Jan. 26,” the Justice Department said.
Van Dyke was 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.”
Just hours after the U.S. government apprehended Maduro and transported him aboard the USS Iwo Jima, a photograph of Van Dyke was taken and uploaded to his Google account, prosecutors alleged in the indictment.
The image showed Van Dyke on what appeared to be the deck of a ship at sea during sunrise, the indictment stated. In the photograph, he was wearing U.S. military fatigues and carrying a rifle with three others who were also wearing fatigues, the document said.
The image wasn’t included in the indictment and NBC News has not reviewed it.
An attorney for Van Dyke was not listed on the court docket, and no one answered cell phone numbers listed for him Thursday evening.
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