US soldier arrested for betting (in raid against Maduro)

The US Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a member of the US Army Special Forces, for allegedly using “classified, non-public” information to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make profits of more than $400.000 from Polymarket transactions.

A jury indicted him on five counts, including multiple violations of the Commodity Exchange Act. Van Dyke is the first person to be charged with insider trading in a futures market in the United States.

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Lawmakers have been raising concerns for months about the high likelihood that politicians and public officials could use non-public information to profit from transactions on leading industry platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, which have skyrocketed in popularity in the past year.

The arrest comes just weeks after Justice Department prosecutors met with Polymarket regarding potential insider trading violations.
After Van Dyke's arrest was made public, Polymarket released a statement on social media noting that it had "identified a user who was trading classified government information" and "referred the matter to the Department of Justice and cooperated with their investigation."

According to court documents, Van Dyke has been an active-duty U.S. soldier since September 2008 and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2023. At the time of the alleged trading activity, he was stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and assigned to the Western Hemisphere Special Operations Command.

The complaint states that Van Dyke participated in the planning and execution of Maduro's arrest and that he knew he was not authorized to share non-public information about U.S. military operations.

The complaint states that Van Dyke signed a confidentiality agreement that prohibited him from disclosing sensitive or classified government information “in writing, orally, by his conduct or otherwise.”

Van Dyke faces a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

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