The commando fighter who captured Maduro – and secretly bet on the success of the operation

Yesterday (Thursday) the US Department of Justice filed an indictment against Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a special forces fighter, on the suspicion that he used classified military information to bet on the results of the operation in which he participated himself – the capture of the former Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.

According to the unsealed indictment, Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, opened an account with the crypto-based gambling platform Polymarket in late December 2025. At the time, he held sensitive and classified information about the dramatic nighttime operation that took place on January 3, in which US forces raided a compound in Caracas and captured Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores.

Federal prosecutors claim that Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on questions related to the ouster of Maduro and the timing of the operation, even before the information became public domain. “It is a matter of trading inside clear information, and it is a violation of federal law,” officials at the Ministry of Justice said. The bets turned out to be especially profitable for the soldier, who raked in profits of about $409,000.

The Polymarket platform is the one that identified the suspicious activity and reported it to the authorities. “When we identified a user trading on the basis of classified government information, we forwarded the matter to the Ministry of Justice and cooperated with the investigation,” the company said. “Trading in insider information has no place here. Today’s arrest proves that the system works.”

Van Dyke is charged with illegal use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of government information, goods fraud, aggravated fraud and making illegal financial transactions.

“Our men and women in uniform are trusted and have access to classified information to perform their mission in the safest and most effective manner. They are prohibited from exploiting that information for personal financial gain,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Prediction markets are not a haven for the use of stolen or illegally obtained information.”

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, was asked about the affair at the event on Thursday and replied that he had not heard about it, but would look into the details. However, he expressed a general disapproval of gambling platforms: “The whole world has become a kind of casino. Look at what’s happening in Europe and everywhere, people bet on everything. I’ve never been a big fan of it.”

As you may remember, Nicolás Maduro and his wife were brought to New York after their capture to stand trial for weapons and drug offenses, charges they vehemently deny. Now, it seems that one of the fighters who was supposed to be part of the peak moments of the operation, will find himself beside them on the dock – although under completely different circumstances.