A US special forces soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arrested and charged for allegedly betting on that operation, netting him $400,000 in profits.

According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke opened an account in late December on Polymarket, one of the best-known prediction markets. He wagered about $32,000 that Maduro would be “out” by January. The bet was a long-shot.

But Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve, prosecutors allege, and had access to classified information before he placed the bet. His winnings, though anonymous, caught the attention of law enforcement almost immediately.

Van Dyke, an active duty solider stationed at Fort Bragg, faces five criminal charges for stealing and misusing confidential government information, theft and fraud. He will make his first court appearance in North Carolina. No attorney has been listed for him on the court docket.

He allegedly made 13 bets from December 27 to January 2, the last being hours before the overnight capture. Prosecutors said Van Dyke sent his more than $400,000 in profits to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before he deposited them in an online brokerage account.

A master sergeant in the Army is a senior noncommissioned officer, considered a key tactical leader and technical expert and serving as the principal NCO typically at the Army battalion level. Senior NCOs are often looked to for setting and upholding the standard for more junior soldiers in the unit.

“Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain,” said Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Van Dyke was photographed just after the operation – and from when he placed his final bet – on “what appears to be the deck of a ship at sea, at sunrise wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues,” court documents say.

Van Dyke profited more than $400,000, prosecutors say. He then allegedly moved those winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before he deposited them in an online brokerage account in what prosecutors called an attempt to conceal their origin.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a related complaint against Van Dyke on Thursday, seeking restitution, disgorgement and civil monetary penalties.

CNN reported last month that federal prosecutors were investigating the Maduro trade, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chiefs of the securities and commodity fraud unit at the US attorney’s office in Manhattan met with representatives at Polymarket last month.

After the bets were placed, the US military launched a covert operation that extradited Maduro from the presidential palace in Caracas in an overnight capture while coming under heavy fire. Maduro was transported to New York to face federal drug-trafficking related charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Polymarket in a post on X said, “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation. Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”

ABC News first reported Thursday’s arrest. (CNN)

The post US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400,000 on Maduro raid appeared first on Newswire.

Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority – a result that appeared to dash opposition hopes of ending 25 years of socialist rule and was immediately contested by his political rivals and several governments in the region.

After a six-hour delay in releasing the results of Sunday’s election sparked an outpouring of concern from South American governments, the national electoral council claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.

The council said that with about 80% of votes counted, Maduro had secured more than 5 million compared with González’s 4.4 million.

“I am Nicolás Maduro Moros – the re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela … and I will defend our democracy, our law and our people,” the 61-year-old authoritarian proclaimed as he addressed supporters in the capital, Caracas.

Maduro dedicated his win to his mentor, the late president Hugo Chávez, who anointed Maduro as his successor shortly before his premature death in 2013. “Long live Chávez. Chávez is alive!” Maduro shouted.

The result was celebrated by Maduro allies including the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez who hailed a “historic victory” and called it a triumph of “the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people”. “The people spoke and the revolution won,” he tweeted.

Bolivia’s leftwing leader, Luis Arce, also celebrated the result of an election that was held on what would have been Chávez’s 70th birthday. “What a great way to remember the Comandante Hugo Chávez,” Arce tweeted.

But there was condemnation and questioning from elsewhere in the region, with many convinced the election had been stolen. (The Guardian)

The post Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro wins third term as President appeared first on Newswire.