Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a 38-year-old U.S. special forces soldier, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a Manhattan federal court to charges that he used classified information to win more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket. Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, is accused of using insider knowledge regarding the mission to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to make a series of bets that Maduro would be out of power by Jan. 31.
Prosecutors allege that Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of the operation and had signed nondisclosure agreements. He has been charged with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan stated that the platform flagged the suspicious activity and turned it over to the government.
Van Dyke appeared before U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett with attorneys Zach Intrater and Mark Geragos. He had previously been granted bond during a court hearing in North Carolina. The case emerges amid heightened scrutiny of prediction markets, with policymakers calling for stricter regulation of the platforms due to concerns about insider trading.
The Trump administration has been supportive of the expansion of the prediction market industry. The president's eldest son is an investor and an adviser for both Polymarket and its main competitor, Kalshi. Additionally, the social media platform Truth Social is launching its own prediction market called Truth Predict.