A U.S. special forces soldier was arrested and charged with insider trading tied to a prediction market, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly used classified information about a military raid to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to make wagers on Polymarket. The indictment claims he profited more than $400,000.
The case marks the first time the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed insider trading charges related to event contracts, according to a CFTC statement. It arrives amid heightened scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers over the largely unregulated prediction market industry. The charges offer a real-world test of how authorities pursue insider trading involving sensitive government information.
Van Dyke, 38, was an active-duty soldier based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who took part in planning and executing the January 3 operation to capture Maduro, the indictment states. The FBI alleges he leveraged his role as an Army soldier to learn details of the raid and then traded outcomes related to Venezuela on Polymarket.
The case could set a precedent for how federal agencies treat confidential government information in the context of decentralized betting platforms. Polymarket, which allows users to wager on political and global events, has faced growing regulatory pressure.
Critics argue that the CFTC's move stretches the definition of insider trading to a novel arena, potentially chilling legitimate prediction market activity. The soldier's defense has not yet commented on the charges.