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Gannon Ken Van Dyke, master sergeant of the United States Army Special Forces, pleaded not guilty this Tuesday in a federal court in Manhattan to five criminal charges for using classified information about the mission that captured Nicolás Maduro to earn over $404,000 on the prediction platform Polymarket.
Van Dyke, 38 years old, appeared before Judge Margaret M. Garnett of the Southern District of New York, accompanied by his attorneys Zach Intrater and Mark Geragos, and was released on a $250,000 bail, with restrictions on traveling to areas in New York, North Carolina, and California, according to a report from Telemundo 51.
The accusations against him include the illegal use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, commodity fraud, electronic fraud, and executing an unlawful monetary transaction, charges for which he could face a maximum combined sentence of 60 years in prison.
According to the formal indictment, Van Dyke participated in the planning and execution of the Absolute Resolution Operation since December 8, 2025, the date on which he signed a non-disclosure agreement, and took advantage of his access to highly classified information to open an account on Polymarket under the alias "Burdensome-Mix".
Between December 27, 2025, and January 2, 2026, just hours before the nighttime capture of Maduro, Van Dyke placed approximately 13 bets totaling $33,034 on the removal of the Venezuelan dictator before January 31, a possibility that the market deemed unlikely.
After the capture of Maduro in the early morning of January 3, Van Dyke sold his positions and made a net profit of $409,881.
On January 6, he requested to delete his account on Polymarket, changed the registered email on his cryptocurrency platform, and transferred funds to a foreign vault to cover his tracks.
It was precisely Polymarket that detected the suspicious activity and reported it to the government, as confirmed by the platform's CEO, Shayne Coplan.
The soldier, who has been in the Armed Forces for almost 20 years and was promoted to master sergeant in 2023, had been arrested last week and subsequently released on bail after a hearing in North Carolina, before his case was transferred to New York.
The case represents the first application of the so-called "Eddie Murphy Rule," a regulation of the Commodity Exchange Act that prohibits trading in derivatives markets using insider information from the government, named after the 1983 movie Trading Places.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a parallel civil lawsuit against Van Dyke.
Defense attorney Zach Intrater indicated before the judge that he doubts there are many controversies surrounding "the fact itself," but that the case will depend on the motions he will file on behalf of his client.
The prosecutors indicated that the evidence will include information obtained through grand jury subpoenas, records of cryptocurrency exchanges, search warrants, and social media accounts.
The case occurs in a context of growing debate over the regulation of prediction markets. The administration of President Donald Trump has supported the expansion of this industry. Donald John Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, is an advisor and investor in Polymarket, and Truth Social is preparing its own market called Truth Predict.
Maduro, captured in a bunker in Caracas during the Absolute Resolution Operation, was transferred to New York, where he pleaded not guilty on January 5 to charges of narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and possession of military-grade weapons.
Judge Garnett ordered Van Dyke to return to court on June 8 for a pre-trial conference.
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