The Division of Justice introduced Thursday that it arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an enlisted member of the US Military’s particular forces, for allegedly utilizing “categorized, 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 Alternate Act.
Van Dyke is the primary particular person to be charged with insider buying and selling on a prediction market in the US. Lawmakers have been voicing issues for months in regards to the excessive chance that politicians and public servants may use nonpublic data to revenue from trades on main trade platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, which have exploded in reputation over the previous yr.
The arrest comes simply weeks after Division 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 categorized data by making wagers on Polymarket associated to navy operations. Kalshi, Polymarket’s main rival in the US, lately fined three politicians for breaking its insider buying and selling guidelines, however it didn’t flag the violations for additional enforcement to the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC), the federal company that oversees prediction markets.
After Van Dyke’s arrest was made public, Polymarket posted a press release to social media noting that it had “recognized a consumer buying and selling on categorized authorities data” and “referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation.” The corporate declined to remark additional.
In keeping with court docket paperwork, Van Dyke has been an lively responsibility US soldier since September 2008 and rose to the extent of grasp sergeant in 2023. On the time of the alleged buying and selling exercise, he was stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and assigned to the Military’s Particular 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 complete pressure of the legislation,” CFTC chair Michael Selig mentioned in a press release. “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 approach.”
The grievance alleges that Van Dyke was concerned within the planning and execution of Maduro’s arrest and that he was conscious that he wasn’t approved to share nonpublic details about US navy operations. The grievance says that Van Dyke signed a nondisclosure settlement that forbade him from revealing delicate or categorized authorities data “by writing, phrase, conduct, or in any other case.” The grievance additionally alleges Van Dyke saved a screenshot to his Google account “displaying the outcomes of a synthetic intelligence question” outlining how the US Particular Forces maintains many categorized 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 trade.
The next 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 a whole lot of hundreds of shares—on a “YES” contract for “Maduro out by … January 31, 2026.” In different phrases, Van Dyke allegedly stood to make an infinite revenue if the Venezuelan chief wound up out of energy by the top of the month.
