U.S. soldier accused of betting on Maduro operation pleads not guilty - BERITAJA

A U.S. special forces worker accused of utilizing classified information about the operation to region Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro from agency to make prediction marketplace bets connected Tuesday pleaded not blameworthy to national charges.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, was charged Friday pinch unlawful usage of confidential authorities accusation for individual gain, theft of nonpublic authorities information, commodities fraud, ligament fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, who is presiding complete the case, released him connected a $250,000 individual recognizance enslaved and restricted his recreation to New York, North Carolina and California.

Manhattan national prosecutors allege that Van Dyke, who is stationed astatine Fort Bragg successful North Carolina, stake $33,034 connected the Maduro ambush connected Polymarket, which amounted to much than $409,000 successful ill-gotten gains.

On Tuesday, Van Dyke's defense attorney, Zach Intrater, said that the worker is connected time off from the military. As of now, his position pinch the subject is "unsettled," Intrater said.

Since 2008, Van Dyke has been an active-duty worker successful the Army, according to the indictment. In 2023, he became a Master Sergeant pinch the U.S. Army Special Forces.

Van Dyke allegedly “participated successful the readying and execution of the U.S. subject cognition to seizure Nicolás Maduro,” prosecutors said. “In total, Van Dyke made about 13 bets from Dec. 27, 2025, done the evening of Jan. 26.”

Maduro and his woman were captured connected Jan. 3 during a nighttime ambush successful Caracas carried retired by U.S. forces.

In a station connected X, Polymarket’s laminitis and CEO said he was “grateful” to the Department of Justice for publically recognizing the company’s practice connected the case.

"Noise aside, the reality is we activity proactively pinch each applicable authorities connected immoderate suspicious activity connected our marketplace. We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated passim the process," Polymarket’s Shayne Coplan said. "This happens perpetually down the scenes, contempt what galore are led to believe."

After the authorities apprehended Maduro and transported him aboard the USS Iwo Jima, a photograph of Van Dyke was taken and uploaded to his Google account, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said the image showed Van Dyke connected what appeared to beryllium the platform of a vessel astatine oversea during sunrise. In the photograph, he was wearing U.S. subject fatigues and carrying a firearm pinch 3 others besides wearing fatigues, according to the indictment.

The image wasn’t included successful the indictment, and Beritaja has not reviewed it.

“The aforesaid time of the operation, Van Dyke withdrew the mostly of his allegedly unlawful proceeds from his Polymarket account,” national prosecutors said.

Three days aft the Maduro raid, connected Jan. 6, Van Dyke asked Polymarket to delete his account, and falsely claimed he had mislaid entree to the email address, authorities said.

The suspect attempted to make an relationship connected Kalshi, a rival prediction marketplace platform, according to a spokesperson for the company. The spokesperson said that Van Dyke grounded to walk Kalshi’s personification verification process, called Know Your Customer, aliases KYC.

Van Dyke's adjacent tribunal quality is scheduled for June.