US soldier arrested over $573,000 bet on capture of Venezuelan president

When Maduro was captured by US troops on a raid on January 3, Van Dyke allegedly made $573,000.

While the details of his involvement in the operation are not known, he was pictured holding a rifle on the warship where Maduro was taken after his capture.

The 38-year-old has been charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, one count of wire fraud and a count of an unlawful monetary transaction.

Combined, the counts could result in 60 years behind bars.

“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.

“Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.”

Van Dyke will appear in court today.

“Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly betrayed his fellow soldiers by utilising classified information for his own financial gain,” FBI assistant director in charge James C Barnacle Jr said.

“Van Dyke profited more than $400,000 by trading various outcomes related to Venezuela after learning of the operation because of his role as a US Army soldier.”

After his successful bets, Van Dyke allegedly transferred the winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency vault, then a brokerage account.

He then allegedly asked Polymarket to delete his account, claiming he had lost access to his email address.

In a statement, Polymarket said they had referred the suspicious behaviour to the Department of Justice.

“When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ and cooperated with their investigation,” the statement said.

“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”

On Polymarket, 150 accounts bet more than a million dollars that the US would strike Iran the next day.

As predicted, the war with Iran began the next day.

But those bets pale in comparison to the profits made on the stock and commodities markets in recent months.

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