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First photo of Nicolás Maduro released by Donald Trump after his capture by American forces
A US special forces soldier involved in the military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was detained on Thursday after allegedly betting on Maduro’s ouster before news of the operation was released.
Federal investigators believe U.S. Army Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke placed bets greater than $33,000 on the prediction markets platform just hours before President Trump’s announcement in January that Maduro had been captured.
The bets were successful and resulted in winnings in excess of $409,000, around 350 thousand euros.
The news of the soldier’s arrest was reported by a source from the police authorities and a senior military official.
According to an indictment made public Thursday in New York Federal Court, Van Dyke was accused of illicit use of government information confidential for personal benefit, appropriation of non-public government information, fraud in the raw materials marketelectronic fraud and carrying out monetary transactions resulting from illicit activity.
In a press release, the Department of Justice stated that Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of the operation of Maduro’s capture.
“Prediction markets are not a refuge for misuse of confidential or classified information for their own benefit”, declared Jay Claytonfederal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York.
“The accused will violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government when using classified information on a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that same operation, all to make a profit. This is clearly insider trading and is illegal under federal law“, he highlighted.
Van Dyke era communications specialist serving the Joint Special Operations Command, the unit that oversees level 1 special missions units, such as the Army Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 of the Navy, which recently .
The indictment states that Van Dyke is in active service since 2008who has been a sergeant major since 2023 and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at the time of the alleged crime. Fort Bragg is home to the headquarters of the Joint Special Operations Command.
In the early morning hours of January 3, Trump posted on the social network Truth Social that the Venezuelan president and his wife had been “s.”
Just before publication of Trump, the holder of an account at Polymarket made a bet of 32,537 dollars in the probability that Maduro is “falling by January 31, 2026”.
Polymarket
An anonymous bettor won more than $400,000 on a $32,000 bet that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be deposed by the end of January.
They were carried out three more bets through the same account at Polymarket: a $1,000 bet on the US invasion of Venezuela by January 31; a $250 bet on Trump invoking the War Powers Act against Venezuela by January 31; and a $146 bet on the landing of US forces in Venezuela by the end of the month.
Van Dyke rubs raised most of the gains of these bets on January 3, according to the indictment. Days later, the military “took measures to hide your identity“, namely asking Polymarket to delete your account.
“When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the case to the Department of Justice and we cooperate with the investigation“, declared Polymarket in a publication on X.
“A insider trading has no place at Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof that the system works,” said the company.
During an unrelated event in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump told reporters that had no knowledge of the alleged bet about Maduro’s removal, but that he would look into the matter.
“It’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team“, said the president, referring to the baseball legend who was banned from the sport for betting. Trump defended Rose, having said last year that he would grant her a posthumous pardon.
Asked about concerns that prediction markets could serve as stage for insider tradingTrump said that “not satisfied with any of this“.
“The whole world, unfortunately, has become a kind of casinoand just look at what’s happening around the world, in Europe and everywhere, they’re all involved in these betting things,” he said. “I’ve never been much in favor of that. It pleases me conceptually, but it is what it is.”
Interestingly, throughout Donald Trump’s second term, which began in January 2025, prediction markets, just before the US President made important announcements.
Some analysts say that this pattern presents characteristics of illegal use of privileged informationwhen operations are carried out based on information that is not available to the general public.
Others claim that the picture is more complex and that some investors have become better able to anticipate interventions of the President (without, therefore, resorting to privileged information).
