Soldier who made $400K betting on Maduro's removal makes 1st court appearance
The special operations soldier who was indicted this week for allegedly using classified information to make more than $400,000 betting on the capture of Nicolas Maduro appeared in a federal courtroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who made the wager on the prediction market Polymarket, will be released on a $250,000 appearance bond.
He agreed to surrender his passport, limit travel to parts of New York and North Carolina, limit drinking "in excess," and no longer possess a firearm unless it's part of his active military service.
Van Dyke entered the courtroom shackled at his hands and feet and only spoke briefly to acknowledge he understood the charges and penalties. He is currently being represented by a public defender.
He is set to appear in federal court in New York City on April 28.
Federal investigators said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on Polymarket just days before President Donald Trump announced Maduro's capture.
The series of bets -- which netted more than $409,000 -- immediately prompted scrutiny within the world of prediction markets and resulted in a monthslong investigation about whether inside information was used to place the bets.
Van Dyke was indicted on charges that included unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
When, after placing the bets, he saw reports about unusual trading associated with the mission, Van Dyke allegedly tried to hide the evidence of the trades by attempting to delete his Polymarket account and change the email address registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account, according to the indictment.
"Rather than safeguard that information as he was obligated to do, VAN DYKE decided to use that classified information to place trades on a prediction market platform for his personal profit," the indictment said. "VAN DYKE subsequently tried to conceal his unlawful use of classified U.S. Government information by attempting to obscure the source of his unlawful proceeds and to disguise his connection to the accounts linked to the illicit trades."
While prediction markets are primarily regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, suspiciously-timed trades on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have sparked concerns about insider trading. In addition to the $400,000 Maduro bet, another Polymarket user made roughly $550,000 through a series of bets related to the U.S. striking Iran and the removal of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked on Thursday what he thought about about Van Dyke's wagers, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, "That's like Pete Rose betting on his own team."
"Pete Rose, they kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team," Trump said. "I'll look into it."
Regarding concerns about federal employees making insider trading bets on the Iran conflict and other developments, Trump said "the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino."
"You look at what's going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they're doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don't like it conceptually, but it is what it is. No, I think that I'm not happy with any of that stuff. But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It's a crazy world. It's a much different world than it was."
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said his company is “constantly” flagging suspicious trades and cooperating with authorities.
"We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated throughout the process. This happens constantly behind the scenes, despite what many are led to believe,” Coplan said on X.
He said that prediction markets allow authorities to easily identify bad actors because all trades are public.
