The Department of Justice introduced Thursday that it arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an enlisted member of the US Army’s particular forces, for allegedly utilizing “labeled, nonpublic” details about the seize of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to notch greater than $400,000 in income on Polymarket trades. A grand jury indicted him on 5 counts, together with a number of violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.
Van Dyke is the primary individual to be charged with insider buying and selling on a prediction market within the United States. Lawmakers have been voicing considerations for months in regards to the excessive chance that politicians and public servants may use nonpublic info to revenue from trades on main trade platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, which have exploded in recognition over the previous 12 months.
The arrest comes simply weeks after Department of Justice prosecutors met with Polymarket about potential insider custom violations. In February, Israeli authorities arrested two residents, a military reservist and a civilian, for allegedly leaking labeled info by making wagers on Polymarket associated to navy operations. Kalshi, Polymarket’s major rival within the United States, not too long ago fined three politicians for breaking its insider buying and selling guidelines, but it surely didn’t flag the violations for additional enforcement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal company that oversees prediction markets.
After Van Dyke’s arrest was made public, Polymarket posted an announcement to social media noting that it had “recognized a person buying and selling on labeled authorities info” and “referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation.” The firm declined to remark additional.
According to court docket paperwork, Van Dyke has been an lively obligation US soldier since September 2008 and rose to the extent of grasp sergeant in 2023. At the time of the alleged buying and selling exercise, he was stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and assigned to the Army’s Special Operations Command Western Hemisphere Operations.
“I’ve been crystal clear that anybody who engages in fraud, manipulation, or insider buying and selling in any of our markets will face the total pressure of the legislation,” CFTC chair Michael Selig mentioned in an announcement. “The defendant was entrusted with confidential details about US operations and but took motion that endangered US nationwide safety and put the lives of American service members in hurt’s means.”
The criticism alleges that Van Dyke was concerned within the planning and execution of Maduro’s arrest and that he was conscious that he wasn’t licensed to share nonpublic details about US navy operations. The criticism says that Van Dyke signed a nondisclosure settlement that forbade him from revealing delicate or labeled authorities info “by writing, phrase, conduct, or in any other case.” The criticism additionally alleges Van Dyke saved a screenshot to his Google account “displaying the outcomes of a synthetic intelligence question” outlining how the US Special Forces maintains many labeled information together with “operational particulars that aren’t accessible to the general public.”
On December 26, Van Dyke allegedly opened an account on Polymarket and took out round $35,000 from his checking account earlier than transferring it to a cryptocurrency change.
The following day, Van Dyke allegedly made his first Venezuela-related commerce on Polymarket, placing rather less than $100 on a “YES” contract that US forces could be in Venezuela by January 31, 2026. Prosecutors accuse him of in the end making 13 Venezuela-related transactions on the platform, seven of these—totaling lots of of 1000’s of shares—on a “YES” contract for “Maduro out by … January 31, 2026.” In different phrases, Van Dyke allegedly stood to make an unlimited revenue if the Venezuelan chief wound up out of energy by the top of the month.
