A U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant was arrested for allegedly using classified information to make extremely profitable bets on the Polymarket prediction market related to the American military mission that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

The sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, “was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve,” which apprehended Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in early January, the DOJ said.

Van Dyke, 38, wagered a total of about $33,000 in 13 or so bets in the week leading up to that operation, with the knowledge that the United States was secretly planning military action against Maduro, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The bets won Van Dyke nearly $410,000, the indictment alleges.

The arrest of Van Dyke, who has been on active duty in the Army since 2008, comes as Polymarket and Kalshi have grown in popularity and as concerns have grown about people with inside information making wagers on those prediction market platforms.

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[–] 101 points 6 months ago (1 child)

He’s not rich enough to get away with insider trading.

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  • [–] 13 points 6 months ago

    Polymarket and stuff like it should be fucking illegal.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout

    According to Victor Marchetti, a former special assistant to the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a limited hangout is "spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further".

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  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago

    They want their cut I guess...

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  • [–] 19 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    No matter how much Polymarket pretends to be against this, it's exactly how it's supposed to work.

    I know people call it glorified betting, and a ton of it is....but you can't deny the reality that an anonymous crypto based being system is bound to be one of the best predictors of major events. For exactly the reason that insiders will inevitably find a way to make money off their knowledge.

    Everyone gets their panties in a bunch about it, but I find it a fascinating experiment on manipulating greed.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago*

    It's a spying tool that inteligence agencies tried to implement in foreign countries before, but failed. You brought it on yourself.

    Also, its often self-fullfiling profecy. And it's not as accurate as they claim.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    As others have said, prediction markets are not the stock market, there is no insider trading. Insider information makes the market more accurate. It's external places, like the military, that may or may not have rules.

    Want to know why it's not regulated? Look at the board for the two biggest players.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    Let the ass kissing and subsequent presidential pardoning begin

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    Where's that Maduro guy anyway. He's pretty tall!

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