Tentative trial date set for soldier who allegedly made $400,000 off Maduro's capture
A federal judge on Monday set a tentative date for the trial of the U.S. Army special forces soldier who is charged with using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket.
The criminal trial of Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 7.
Van Dyke pleaded not guilty in April after prosecutors alleged he used inside information to place 13 bets on the outcome of the Maduro raid then attempted to destroy evidence of the trades after he pocketed more than $400,000.
The case would be the first U.S. prosecution of insider trading on a prediction market to go to trial.
Prosecutors on Monday said they had "substantially completed" handing over the evidence in the case, and estimated their case would take about one week to try.
Defense lawyers said they plan to put on a brief case that would take a "couple of days," and said they plan to file a motion to dismiss the indictment by July 31.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos argued in court that the prosecution would be derailed by the classified information at the center of the case. To convict Van Dyke, he argued, prosecutors would need to prove "who was in the Situation Room at that time and who made the decision" to capture Maduro.
Van Dyke, who sat at the defense table during Monday's proceedings, did not speak.
Geragos, speaking to reporters outside court after the hearing, called the prosecution an "exercise in futility."
"There's only one person who could have ordered the operation -- that one person is the president. They are never, ever going to get the president to divulge when and how and what, so this is just an exercise in futility," Geragos argued.
Geragos also previewed his motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the "amorphous" and "non-binary" nature of prediction markets distinguishes them from normal commodities markets.
"What you have here are amorphous questions, meaning there's no clear yes or no, and you've got somebody who is unidentified who makes the decision as to whether or not you won. That is not something that the government can or should be imposing criminal liability on," he said.
Van Dyke, an experienced special forces soldier, was released on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond following his April arraignment. According to his attorney Zach Intrater, he is currently on leave from the Army.
Allegations of insider trading have prompted public scrutiny of prediction market sites like Polymarket and Kalshi. Prosecutors in New York last month charged a Google employee with using confidential company information to make more than $1.2 million on Polymarket.
