A US special forces soldier, Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, has been arrested and charged for allegedly profiting $400,000 by betting on the covert operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.
Van Dyke, stationed at Fort Bragg, placed a series of bets on Polymarket, a prominent prediction market, between December 27 and January 2, just hours before the overnight raid on January 5, 2026. He wagered approximately $32,000 that Maduro would be removed from power by January, a long-shot bet that paid off after the US military executed Operation Absolute Resolve, extraditing Maduro from Caracas under heavy fire.
Prosecutors allege Van Dyke funneled his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault before transferring them to an online brokerage account.
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Facing five criminal charges, Van Dyke is set to make his first court appearance in North Carolina. The indictment, unsealed on Thursday, has raised serious questions about the misuse of classified information by active-duty personnel.
“Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them, not to use that information for personal financial gain,” said Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The scale of the trade immediately drew scrutiny from law enforcement, with federal prosecutors already investigating suspicious activity tied to the Maduro operation. The US military’s high-stakes mission saw Maduro transported to New York, where he faces federal drug-trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.
Van Dyke’s alleged actions cast a shadow over the operation’s success, highlighting vulnerabilities in how sensitive military intelligence is handled. The $400,000 profit, derived from a mere $32,000 wager, underscores the potential for insider knowledge to disrupt both national security and financial markets.
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