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A U.S. Army special forces soldier was released on bail this Friday after being accused of using classified information about the operation that captured Nicolás Maduro to place bets on an online prediction platform and make profits of over $400,000.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a 38-year-old master sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, appeared in a federal court in Raleigh and was released on a personal recognizance bond without collateral of 250,000 dollars, subject to strict conditions that include surrendering his passport and travel restrictions.
Van Dyke had been in the Armed Forces for nearly 20 years and was promoted to master sergeant in 2023.
According to the formal accusation from the Department of Justice, the military officer was directly involved in the planning and execution of the Operation Absolute Resolution since December 8, 2025, the date he signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Taking advantage of his access to highly classified information, he opened an account on Polymarket on December 26, 2025, under the alias "Burdensome-Mix" and placed approximately 13 bets between December 27 and January 2, 2026, just hours before Maduro's nighttime capture.
He invested approximately $33,034 in over 436,000 contracts regarding Maduro's removal before January 31, 2026, among other contracts related to the presence of U.S. forces in Venezuela.
After the capture on January 3, 2026, he sold his positions with a net profit of 409,881 dollars.
Upon detecting media attention regarding the unusual activity in the markets, Van Dyke tried to cover his tracks: on January 6, he requested Polymarket to delete his account, changed the email registered on his cryptocurrency platform, and transferred funds to an offshore vault.
However, technology was key in locating him: Polymarket detected suspicious activity and alerted the Department of Justice.
The military man accessed Polymarket—a platform based in Panama and legally inaccessible to users in the United States—through a virtual private network and his personal email.
Van Dyke faces five federal criminal charges: three for violating the Commodity Exchange Act, one for wire fraud with a maximum penalty of 20 years, and one for illegal monetary transaction.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a parallel civil lawsuit against the defendant.
According to the Commission, this case represents the first application of the so-called "Eddie Murphy Rule," a regulation that prohibits operating in derivative markets using insider information from the government.
The Absolute Resolution Operation, carried out in the early hours of January 3, 2026, involved more than 200 military personnel and 150 aircraft, including the Delta Force unit, and resulted in the capture of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in Caracas.
Maduro was transferred to New York, where he faces charges of narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking, and he pleaded not guilty at his first appearance.
The next hearing for Van Dyke is scheduled for April 28 in the Southern District of New York.
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