Special Forces soldier bets case bond in Polymarket Maduro

An Army Special Forces soldier charged criminally in connection with making highly profitable bets on Polymarket related to the US military raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was released on Friday. Unsecured $250,000 bond After appearing in federal court in Raleigh, N.C.

master Sergeant. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was ordered to appear on Tuesday US District Court in ManhattanWhere he is charged with wire fraud and other charges related to allegedly using classified information about a planned operation to win approximately $410,000 from bets and then trying to cover up the scheme.

Kalshi, Polymarket’s main competitor in the forecasting market, confirmed on Friday that it had blocked Van Dyke from opening a Kalshi account.

Kalshi spokeswoman Elizabeth Diana said she could not provide details about when Van Dyke, 38, tried to open the account or why she was prevented from doing so.

Van Dyke, who has served in the Army since 2008, was arrested Thursday in North Carolina, where he is based at Fort Bragg.

Van Dyke was involved in planning and executing the Jan. 3 raid in Caracas that ended with U.S. special forces capturing Maduro and his wife and placing them on a Navy ship to be flown to the U.S., where they faced federal drug charges in the same court where Van Dyke had recently been convicted, prosecutors said.

In the week before the raid, Van Dyke opened a Polymarket account and then began betting on contracts such as whether U.S. troops would be in Venezuela by January 31, whether Maduro would be out of office by that date and related questions, the indictment alleges.

He allegedly wagered approximately $33,000 in more than a dozen bets, according to the indictment, which is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Commodity Futures Trading Commissionwho controls the prediction markets, is separate Van Dyke was accused in a civil complaint Three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Act in relation to alleged betting.

Van Dyke’s arrest is the latest in a series of controversies involving prediction markets, whose growing popularity has raised concerns about gambling addiction and insiders who are exploiting their knowledge to place bets on event contracts.

Sen on Friday. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, gave an introduction The bill that would ban US senators from trading in prediction markets.

On Wednesday, the day before Van Dyke’s arrest, Kalshi revealed that he had fined and suspended a Senate candidate and two House of Representatives candidates for doing business in their own campaigns.

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes a CNBC minority investment.