After Maduro's fall, one trader hit $400,000 Polymarket jackpot. Turns out, he was part of the mission

The unknown bettor, who opened an account on prediction market platform Polymarket in December and invested about $30,000 on contracts linked to Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s exit, has apparently turned out to be a US special forces soldier.

The soldier has been arrested and charged with using classified information about the covert mission to capture Maduro to place lucrative bets on Polymarket netting more than $400,000 in profits.

According to an indictment unsealed on Thursday, Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, used sensitive information about the operation to wager on the outcome via Polymarket.

Prosecutors said Van Dyke opened an account in late December and placed roughly $32,000 in bets that Maduro would be removed from power by January.

Despite signing nondisclosure agreements prohibiting the use or disclosure of classified information, he allegedly used his knowledge of the operation’s timing to place a series of trades between December 30 and January 2.

The bulk of the bets were placed just hours before US forces launched strikes on Caracas and seized Maduro, according to court documents.

“This involved a US soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.

The bets yielded more than $404,000 in profits, with an additional $5,000 earned from related Venezuela-linked contracts, authorities said.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said it had filed a parallel civil complaint, alleging Van Dyke transferred about $35,000 into a cryptocurrency exchange account on December 26, days before the operation, and used most of the funds to place bets tied to Maduro’s removal.

“The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about US operations and yet took action that endangered US national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said in a statement.

Van Dyke faces five criminal charges, including theft and misuse of government information and fraud.

Polymarket said it had identified suspicious trading linked to classified information, alerted the US Department of Justice and cooperated with investigators.

“Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said.