The US Department of Justice announced the arrest of Special Agent Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who is suspected of using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make over $400,000 in profit from trading on Polymarket.
The US Department of Justice announced the arrest of Special Agent Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who is suspected of using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make over $400,000 in profit from trading on Polymarket.
The jury indicted him on a number of counts, writes Wired.
Thus, Van Dyke became the first person accused of insider trading in the prediction market in the United States.
At the same time, US lawmakers have been expressing concern for several months about the high likelihood that politicians and public officials could use non-public information to profit from trading on platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi.
The military man’s arrest came just weeks after Justice Department prosecutors met with Polymarket representatives and discussed potential violations.
There has been a similar case before, but with a military man from another country — Israeli authorities arrested two citizens, including a military man, for allegedly leaking classified information by placing bets on Polymarket.
Meanwhile, Kalshi, Polymarket’s main competitor in the United States, recently fined three politicians for violating insider trading rules.
After Van Dyke’s arrest became public knowledge, Polymarket issued a statement on social media saying it had «identified a user who was trading classified government information» and had «referred the matter to the Department of Justice.» The company declined further comment.
According to court documents, Van Dyke has been in the U.S. military since September 2008 and was promoted to the rank of master sergeant in 2023.
The documents allege that Van Dyke was involved in planning and executing Maduro’s arrest and that he knew he had no right to release non-public information about U.S. military operations. The complaint says Van Dyke also signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Meanwhile, on December 26, Van Dyke allegedly opened an account on Polymarket and withdrew about $35,000 from his bank account before transferring it through a cryptocurrency exchange. Prosecutors accuse him of ultimately making 13 transactions on the platform related to events in Venezuela.
As dev.ua reported, the Portuguese gambling regulator SRIJ has decided to ban the Polymarket prediction market in the country. The reason was bets on the country’s presidential elections worth over 103 million euros.
