A US Army Master Sergeant has been charged with using classified details of the operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to profit roughly $409,881 on Polymarket.

The Department of Justice unsealed the indictment against Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, April 23, 2026. Van Dyke was released on a $250,000 bond. According to the DOJ, it is the first federal criminal case alleging insider trading on a prediction market.

Van Dyke placed approximately 13 wagers on Polymarket between December 27, 2025, and January 2, 2026, totalling$33,034. The bets took “Yes” positions on event contracts including “US forces invading Venezuela” and “Maduro out by January 31.” The contracts settled in his favour after President Trump publicly confirmed Operation Absolute Resolve had succeeded on January 3, 2026.

Background and Charges

The five charges against Van Dyke are unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction. Court filings state Van Dyke was a communications specialist supporting Joint Special Operations Command, has been on active duty since 2008, was promoted to master sergeant in 2023, and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina at the time of the alleged conduct.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and US Attorney Jay Clayton of the Southern District of New York issued the joint statement: “As alleged in the indictment, Van Dyke used his access to classified information about that operation to personally profit.” The DOJ filing also alleges Van Dyke deleted his Polymarket profile and altered information on the cryptocurrency exchange that processed his withdrawals in an attempt to obscure the source of the funds.

Photographs from the operation showed Van Dyke aboard the USS Iwo Jima in the hours after Maduro’s capture.

Platform Cooperation

Polymarket has not been charged. The company’s trade-surveillance system flagged the suspicious pattern and provided the data to federal investigators, according to court filings. CFTC-regulated rival Kalshi separately confirmed it blocked Van Dyke from its platform after identifying him as a politically exposed risk linked to the SDNY indictment.

The cooperation angle from both platforms is consistent with their public framing that prediction markets self-police on integrity violations. Polymarket is reportedly closing a $400 million funding round at a $15 billion valuation. The DOJ filing landed mid-raise.

Regulatory Context

The commodities fraud charge treats Polymarket event contracts as commodity derivatives, mirroring the CFTC’s existing civil-side classification. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has publicly supported “lawful innovation” in prediction markets since taking the chair in late 2025. The Van Dyke case is the first criminal test of that stance.

Several other prediction-markets enforcement actions landed in the same week. Kalshi suspended Texas House candidate Ezekiel Enriquez, Minnesota state senator Matt Klein, and Virginia US Senate candidate Mark Moran for trading on their own elections, with five-year bans and fines totalling roughly $7,553.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed petitions in Manhattan state court against Coinbase Financial Markets and Gemini Titan, alleging both offered prediction markets without a New York gaming licence. Senator John Curtis (R-Utah) introduced legislation on April 22 to define prediction markets as gambling. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed an executive order banning state employees from trading on inside information.

Trump’s Reaction

President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on April 23 that “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino. You look at what’s going on all over the world. They’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it.” He added he does not like prediction markets “conceptually.”

The comments came hours after the indictment was unsealed and represent the first on-record comment from the administration since Trump’s appointed CFTC chair began rolling out the agency’s pro-prediction-markets framework in December 2025.

What Comes Next

Van Dyke remains free on the $250,000 bond pending trial. No trial date has been set. The indictment is the first federal criminal prosecution to treat an event-contract position on a prediction market as commodities-fraud-eligible insider trading, and legal observers cited in coverage have noted the case will likely set an important precedent. The crypto gambling and prediction-markets sectors will be watching the docket alongside the parallel state-level actions filed in New York the same week.