Suspected of having used confidential information to bet on the United States' intervention in Venezuela, an American soldier was indicted for fraud on Thursday. He had pocketed more than $400,000 by betting on the fall of Nicolas Maduro and faces up to 50 years in prison.

Published on: 04/24/2026 - 06:45 Modified on: 04/24/2026 - 10:42

An American soldier suspected of having pocketed more than $400,000 by betting on the fall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro thanks to confidential information has been indicted for fraud, the American Department of Justice announced Thursday, April 23, in a context of increasing suspicions of insider trading linked to the actions of the Trump administration.

Gannon soldier Ken Van Dyke is accused of using confidential information to bet on the United States' intervention in Venezuela on January 3, the ministry detailed.

Since the beginning of December, the 38-year-old man had placed more than $30,000 on 13 bets on the Polymarket site relating to an American intervention in Venezuela or the fall of President Maduro.

"Van Dyke won his bets on these contracts. In total, he would have made a profit of approximately $409,881," according to the ministry. However, “he had access to sensitive, non-public and classified information on this operation,” said this source in a press release.

Stationed at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina, he in fact “participated in the planning and execution” of the operation which made it possible to capture Nicolas Maduro and take him to the United States to put him on trial for drug trafficking, it was added.

“Men and women who serve in uniform have access to classified information (...) and they are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” recalled Acting Justice Minister Todd Blanche.

The soldier is notably being prosecuted for "unlawful use of confidential government information for personal purposes", "theft of government information", electronic fraud and illegal monetary transaction. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 50 years in prison.

“An unprecedented kleptocracy”

The Polymarket site indicated that it had taken legal action and participated in the investigation after spotting the bettor. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket” and the arrest “proves that the system works,” the company said Thursday on X.

“The whole world, unfortunately, has become a kind of casino… in Europe and everywhere else, they make these kinds of bets,” US President Donald Trump responded to journalists on Thursday.

“I was never really in favor of that,” added the American president who, before occupying this post, had several casinos in his own business portfolio, some of which went bankrupt.

Sites like Polymarket or Kalshi, which offer Internet users the opportunity to bet on the possibility of an event occurring, have already been questioned in connection with the conflict in the Middle East.

Six accounts opened on Polymarket pocketed $1.2 million after betting on an American attack on Iran on February 28, the day the offensive began.

Also read: Betting on the news: the dizzying rise of “predictive markets”

No arrests have been made in connection with these bets and so far, there is no indication that Donald Trump's entourage, to whom eyes have been turned, could be linked to these transactions.

The opposition has accused the president and his family of conflicts of interest since the start of his second term.

“The Trump family earned $4 billion thanks to the presidency,” left-wing senator Bernie Sanders denounced Thursday on X, with detailed figures to back it up. “An unprecedented kleptocracy.”

At the end of March, massive sales on the oil market a few minutes before an announcement by Donald Trump mentioning discussions with Iran, fueled the suspicions of traders and politicians who saw it as the sign of insider trading.

According to calculations by a market operator for Agence France-Presse (AFP), these operations could have generated several tens of millions of dollars in profits thanks to the brutal fall in black gold prices which followed the president's announcement.

Members of the Trump family have also raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from cryptocurrencies, a market the leader has sought to deregulate.

The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., is also a partner in the company 1789 Capital, which invested several million dollars in Polymarket last year, leading this platform to appoint him as an advisor to the company.

With AFP

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