A U.S. special forces member involved in the operation to detain Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been arrested for using confidential information to place bets on prediction markets.
Medianews.az reports that 38-year-old Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke is accused of using secret military information about the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro for personal gain.
Van Dyke placed a bet of approximately $33,000 on the "Polymarket" platform, predicting that Maduro would be removed from power just hours before the operation began. This risky move earned him a net profit of over $400,000.
Serving at Fort Bragg base, Van Dyke participated as a communications specialist in planning the operation called "Absolute Resolve," and thus knew the exact timing of the assault in advance.
According to the charges, he transferred the earnings to a foreign cryptocurrency wallet and later tried to conceal his identity by requesting his account to be deleted.
U.S. President Donald Trump compared the incident to baseball player Pete Rose betting on his own team, likening the world to a "big casino": "It’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team. Unfortunately, the whole world has turned into a kind of casino."
The soldier is currently charged with theft of state information, fraud, and money laundering.
Nicolas Maduro, who has been President of Venezuela since 2013, was captured during a U.S. special forces military operation in Caracas on January 3, 2026, and was taken to the United States.
Maduro is accused of serious crimes including narco-terrorism, corruption, and organizing an assassination attempt involving cocaine trafficking to the U.S.
Maduro appeared in federal court in New York on January 5, 2026, and stated that he considers himself innocent. He is currently held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.