US soldier involved in Maduro’s capture arrested for using classified intel to win $400,000 bet on Venezuela raid

How the soldier misused confidential information

Involved in planning and executing the operation of capturig Mduor, for a month since Dece3mber 8, he had signed documents promising that he would not divulge any “classified or sensitive” details of the raid. However, soon after Van Dyke created a Polymarket account bythe end of December. He made about 13 bets taking “Yes” position on wagers as US Forces landing Venezuela and Maduro being taken out by Jan. 31, 2026. Officials alleged soon after the operation, Van Dyke put a major chunk of his winning amount in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then transferred into a new brokerage account. He even asked Polymarket to delete his account, claiming that he lost access to the email with which he logged in to the account.

How the illegal transaction came to light

Polymarket stated it had found out that some person trading on classified government information and alerted the U.S. Department of Justice. They  “cooperated with their investigation” after that. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the firm said in a statement on X.

The Associated Press, earlier this month, had reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the US and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7. These fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits to these new customers. On the same day as the report, the White House warned staff against using confidential details to trade on prediction markets.

What US government says

“This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. A publicly listed telephone number for Van Dyke was out of service and hence it could niot be confirmed if he has a legal representation.