A soldier in the U.S. special forces who participated in the raid on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has been charged with allegedly betting on the operation.
The soldier, later identified as Gannon Ken Van Dyke, allegedly bet approximately $33,034 on the prediction market platform Polymarket toward the outcome of the raid, raking in a massive payday of $409,000. Van Dyke allegedly placed the bets while partaking in the “planning and execution of the U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro,” per the Justice Department.
“In total, Van Dyke made approximately 13 bets from Dec. 27, 2025, through the evening of Jan. 26,” the DOJ said, adding that he has been criminally charged with “unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.”
The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said that the charges “arise from an
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