U.S. soldier arrested for $400K winning Polymarket bets on Maduro capture, DOJ says

a u.s. army special forces master sergeant was arrested thursday for allegedly using classified information to make nearly $410,000 on polymarket bets about the mission that captured venezuelan leader nicolás maduro. sergeant gannon ken van dyke, 38, wagered about $33,000 across 13 bets between dec. 27 and jan. 2 — the week before operation absolute resolve apprehended maduro and his wife cilia flores in caracas. he took "yes" positions on contracts including whether u.s. forces would be in venezuela by jan. 31, 2026, and whether maduro would be out of office by that date. the bets returned twelve times his stake. van dyke then allegedly moved most of the winnings to a foreign crypto vault before depositing them into a new brokerage account. when news outlets reported unusual trading in maduro contracts, he asked polymarket to delete his account, claiming he'd lost access to his email. polymarket said it referred the matter to the doj after identifying the trading. van dyke faces three counts of violating the commodity exchange act, one count of wire fraud, and one count of unlawful monetary transaction. the top count carries up to 20 years. the cftc also filed a civil complaint. he's expected before a magistrate judge in north carolina thursday evening.