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A special forces master sergeant of the U.S. Army was arrested and formally charged on Thursday for using classified information regarding the operation that captured Nicolás Maduro to bet on an online prediction platform and make profits of over $400,000, reported CNN.
The accused is Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38 years old, an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who was directly involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolution, the mission that extradited Maduro from Caracas in the early morning of January 3, 2026.
According to the formal charges revealed on Thursday, Van Dyke opened an account at Polymarket—one of the most well-known prediction markets—on December 26, 2025, under the alias "Burdensome-Mix," and placed approximately 13 bets between December 27 and January 2, just hours before the nighttime capture.
He invested around 32,000 dollars in contracts that the market considered unlikely, including more than 436,000 shares of the contract "Is Maduro out of power by January 31, 2026?".
The operation involved more than 200 military personnel and 150 aircraft in its execution and Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured in a bunker during the operation.
He pleaded not guilty and remains detained at the Detention Center after appearing before a judge in New York.
Van Dyke faces five criminal charges: one of electronic fraud, among other offenses related to the misuse of classified information.
This case also represents the first application of the so-called "Eddie Murphy Rule", a regulation that prohibits trading in commodity or derivatives markets using confidential government information.
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