Federal prosecutors have charged Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a 38-year-old active-duty U.S. Army soldier linked to the planning and capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, with insider trading and profiting $400,000 on Polymarket predictions tied to the raid.
During a press conference on April 23, 2026, former President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about the allegations, framing the issue as inconsequential if the bets favored U.S. outcomes.
Reporter: “Are you concerned that federal employees are betting on these reduction markets and potentially getting rich?”
Trump: “Well, I don’t know about it. Was he betting that they would get him or they wouldn’t get him?”
Reporter: “It sounds like he was betting on his removal from office, that Maduro would be removed.”
Trump: “That’s interesting. That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team, it’s a little like Pete Rose.”
Trump compared the soldier’s actions to those of Pete Rose, the former Cincinnati Reds manager permanently banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 for betting on his team. Rose’s case also led to the 1991 “Pete Rose Rule,” which prevents ineligible individuals from Hall of Fame elections.
Trump: “If he bet against his team, that would be no good.”
In the same press conference, Trump criticized prediction markets broadly, stating, “the whole world has become somewhat of a casino.” He added, “I was never very much in favor of it, I don’t like it conceptually,” despite his company Truth Social launching its own prediction platform, Truth Predict.
Van Dyke was arrested on April 23, 2026, and faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted. Polymarket issued a statement condemning insider trading, asserting it had fully cooperated with law enforcement and the Justice Department’s investigation.
Political Divide Over Justice for the Soldier
Reactions in Washington remain sharply divided. Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna has publicly urged Trump to pardon Van Dyke, arguing in a social media post that “unless the DOJ plans on going after all the crooks in Congress currently insider trading, this is simply skewed justice.”
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