A U.S. Army soldier was accused of making more than $400,000 trading on Polymarket based on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. military forces, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, 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. According to the unsealed indictment, Van Dyke participated in the planning and execution of the operation to capture Maduro, called “Operation Absolute Resolve,” and used classified information to make wagers on the prediction marketplace.
“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.”
“Today’s announcement makes clear no one is above the law, and this FBI will do whatever it takes to defend the homeland and safeguard our nation’s secrets,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “Any clearance holders thinking of cashing in their access and knowledge for personal gain will be held accountable.”
Van Dyke has been an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Bragg, and signed nondisclosure agreements in which he promised to “never divulge, publish, or reveal by writing, words, conduct, or otherwise . . . any classified or sensitive information” relating to military operations, per the indictment. Van Dyke allegedly created a Polymarket account and began trading on Maduro- and Venezuela-related markets around Dec. 26, 2025, and made approximately 13 bets from Dec. 27, 2025, through the evening of Jan. 26, 2026.
The indictment alleges that while Van Dyke had knowledge of classified information, he bet a total of approximately $33,034 on bets that took the “YES” position on “U.S. Forces in Venezuela . . . by January 31, 2026”; “Maduro out by . . . January 31, 2026”; “Will the U.S. invade Venezuela by . . . January 31,”; or “Trump invokes War Powers against Venezuela by . . . January 31.”
Hours after President Donald Trump announced the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Polymarket resolved several Maduro- and Venezuela-related contracts to “YES,” and as a result, Van Dyke allegedly won his wagers and profited approximately $409,881.
The DOJ claimed that afterwards, Van Dyke transferred most of his winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before moving them into a newly created online brokerage account. Van Dyke allegedly attempted to conceal his identity as a trader and requested Polymarket delete his account on the platform — claiming that he had lost access to the account’s email address.
In a statement posted to X, Polymarket responded to news of Van Dyke’s indictment. “Last month, we published our enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading,” said the company. “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation. Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”
Supporters of James Talarico cheer as they watch midterm election returns during a watch party at the Long Center for the Performing Arts Nov. 3, 2026 in Austin, Texas.
America Slammed the Door on Trump. Now the Hard Work Begins
The American people have spoken, and to paraphrase Dean Wormer of Animal House fame: Lazy, stupid, and corrupt is no way to go through life, let alone run a country. The repudiation of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement was seismic and inevitable.
The gravitational laws of politics held true, and Trump’s star crashed and burned. The thrill for MAGA is gone, at least for the moment. You simply can’t keep telling people that they are winning all the time when they feel like they are losing. Counting on the American people to once again believe you over their own lying eyes is a trick play you can only run so much. Just ask Joe Biden.
The poisonous combination of an unpopular and unnecessary war, horrible candidates, rising costs, a lousy job market, soaring gasoline prices, masked police hunting immigrants, sweeping and naked corruption, and a president more focused on ballrooms and algae blooms than on the American people all spelled electoral doom. The election results were a clear and thoroughly well-deserved ass-kicking.
Historic GOP losses in Kansas, South Carolina, Iowa, and Texas mean the Trump lame-duck era has begun. How soon will the GOP start the painful process of moving on from his stranglehold? His complete capture of the party will make the breakup difficult. And he’s not going to let them go easy. The infighting and battles for leadership will likely be vicious, but hopefully they will be about ideas. In a two-party system, having one party this radical and beholden to one person’s cult of personality has been toxic for our politics.
A perfect example of the sort of poisonous viper from the era, MAGA diehard and presidential confidante Laura Loomer took to X last night to say, “America is over. The communist and jihadists are going to open our borders and replace our votes with votes from illegal aliens. We now have reps who openly speak about their hatred of America…” It was just this sort of culture war BS from Loomer or Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (“no weirdos, beardos,” etc.) that voters grew tired of — when gas is over $4 a gallon these weak attempts at insults cease to distract. Owning the libs feels hollow when you are weighing whether to fill up the tank or buy eggs.The donor class might as well have lit a dump truck filled with cash on fire. How will Elon Musk, who spent over a whopping $450 million on the election, swallow this most bitter pill? Will he blame the president for his failures as a leader and withdraw support? Where do you even go once you have gone full MAGA?
On the other side, the Democrats set some historic and impressive firsts: first Black Speaker of the House, first openly gay man to be senator, first Black woman governor, first Native-American woman governor, first Muslim senator. These victories are truly inspiring, with more potentially on the way as votes continue to be counted (the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction seems a real possibility). The Dems have to keep growing the tent; it’s their greatest strength.
That said, now comes the hard part. The Democrats’ principal work must be to restore the country to a state of normalcy. Show voters you are fighting for them every day — stop trying to get on cable TV to grandstand about Trump and protecting democracy. The Democrats need to focus on voters’ real needs, reject the endless culture wars, and remind people that the Democrats were the party of working people for decades. Right now, folks desperately need jobs, lower prices on food and shelter, and healthcare.
Throughout his career, Sherrod Brown, returning to the Senate in Ohio after two years away, has been a messenger for working America in Washington. He represents a Rust Belt state that felt the full brunt of job losses from NAFTA and endured the opioid crisis. Dems should follow his lead to find their footing. Hold Trump accountable but don’t forget the voters back home who need help, and need it fast.
This is a huge reason for last night’s historic rebuke of Trump: He abandoned everyday Americans to focus on triumphal arches designed to honor himself. Democrats need to remember the lesson the American people just sent — being a people’s representative is not about party, it’s about service.
As Trump likes to say: Thank you for your attention to this matter.