A serious indictment filed in the United States reveals how sensitive operational intelligence allegedly became a tool for illegal profits in the digital betting market.
Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier in the U.S. Army Special Forces, is accused of exploiting his direct involvement in planning the operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in order to bet on the mission’s success through the platform Polymarket.
According to reports, Van Dyke opened an account last December and invested $32,000 on a wager predicting that Maduro would be removed from power by the end of January - a bet that had odds of only 6.5% among the general public.
For investigators, this was not a case of “beginner’s luck." Van Dyke allegedly placed no fewer than 13 different bets between the end of December and January 2, with the final wager reportedly placed only hours before special forces raided Venezuelan territory on January 3.
After the operation reportedly ended successfully with Maduro’s capture, the soldier allegedly earned nearly half a million dollars, which he quickly transferred into a foreign cryptocurrency vault in an attempt to obscure the trail of the funds.
Financial authorities became suspicious because of what they described as clear signs of “insider trading," leading to the opening of a federal investigation.
The American case is shining a spotlight on a troubling global phenomenon involving leaks of military secrets for the purpose of cryptocurrency gambling.
A similar case was exposed in Israel following the filing of an indictment against an Israeli Air Force major accused of leaking classified information to a civilian regarding the launch of Operation “Am KeLavi" against Iran, despite having signed a confidentiality declaration during the operational briefing. According to the report, the civilian used the information to place bets on Polymarket and earned profits of more than $160,000, some of which were allegedly transferred to the officer in cash and cryptocurrency.