A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier has been arrested and charged in a case prosecutors say turns one of Washington’s most sensitive military operations into a stunning insider-trading scandal.

Federal authorities identified the soldier as Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an active-duty U.S. Army service member who allegedly helped plan and execute Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. According to the Justice Department, Van Dyke used classified information from that mission to place bets on Polymarket, a prediction-market platform where users wager on real-world events.

Van Dyke knew, because of his military role, that Maduro’s removal was imminent. Prosecutors say he then bought “Yes” shares on Venezuela- and Maduro-related markets before the operation became public, including contracts tied to whether Maduro would be out by the end of January and whether U.S. forces would enter Venezuela. The CFTC says he purchased more than 436,000 “Yes” shares and generated more than $404,000 in profits.

Court filings say Van Dyke began trading in late December, just days before Maduro was captured in Caracas and transported to the USS Iwo Jima. The indictment alleges that after the news broke and Polymarket resolved key contracts in his favor, Van Dyke moved hundreds of thousands of dollars through crypto accounts and later into a brokerage account, while also trying to delete or obscure parts of his digital trail.

The charges include unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and unlawful monetary transactions. The case is now being handled in federal court, with Van Dyke expected to appear before a magistrate judge in North Carolina before proceedings move through the Southern District of New York.

Regulators say it is the first CFTC insider-trading case involving event contracts, a major warning shot at the fast-growing world of political and geopolitical betting markets. Polymarket said it cooperated with authorities, while U.S. officials framed the case as a betrayal of classified trust, not merely a gambling scandal.