Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a United States soldier, has been charged after allegedly making over $400,000 on the operation that captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
Based on the classified intel he was privy to regarding the timing of the military action, the 38-year-old citizen traded on Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction marketplace.
The prosecution of Van Dyke—who participated in the planning and execution of “Operation Absolute Resolve” on February 3—is the first case of insider trading involving a service member.
Stationed at Fort Bragg, a military base located in Fayetteville, he started placing bets around December 8, 2025, and continued through at least January 6, according to the DoJ.
After winning his wagers and allegedly profiting $409,881, he moved most of the proceeds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before depositing them into a newly created brokerage account.
Prosecutors say Van Dyke tried to conceal his identity by asking Polymarket to delete his account, claiming he lost access to the email address to which the account had been associated.
The Justice Department indictment accused him of using confidential government information for “personal gain, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.”
Van Dyke is charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The defendant appeared on Friday before Judge Brian Meyers in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The case has been assigned to Judge Margaret Garnett in the Southern District of New York.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche reiterated that men and women in uniform are strictly “prohibited from using highly sensitive information for personal financial gain.”
