According to the Department of Justice on Thursday, a US soldier is charged with exploiting classified information to wager on online prediction markets concerning the US effort to apprehend former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
According to justice officials, US Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, allegedly made over $400,000 by using the online bookmaker Polymarket to wager on events pertaining to the arrival of US forces in Caracas, Venezuela, and the removal of Maduro—an operation he assisted in organizing and carrying out.
The US military launched strikes on Caracas on January 3, arresting Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and whisking them to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission…and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
Van Dyke faces one count of wire fraud, one count of an unlawful monetary transaction and three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, according to the indictment.
The indictment marks the latest instance of insider information being used to bet on the actions of the second Trump administration.
Earlier in the year, six accounts on Polymarket made $1.2 million after betting that the United States would attack Iran on February 28, the day the war in the Middle East began.
No arrests have been made in connection with those bets, and so far there is no evidence US President Donald Trump or White House officials are linked to the transactions.
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