President Donald Trump recently said he was unaware of a U.S. soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, allegedly using classified military information to place profitable bets on an online prediction market. Furthermore, he assured the reporters to investigate the insider trading matter.
Donald Trump comments on US soldiers allegedly using inside information for betting
Federal prosecutors charged Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a U.S. special forces soldier, with using access to classified information about the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. Officials claimed he won over $US400,000 ($561,000) on the prediction market site Polymarket. The charges include unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction (via Financial Review).
When asked about the case, Trump told reporters, “I’ll look into it,” adding that he has long opposed the concept of event-betting platforms. When pressed on whether he had concerns about insider trading linked to the Iran conflict, Trump responded, “Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino. And you look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favour of it. I don’t like it conceptually.”
The charges follow a series of well-timed bets that have raised questions about insider trading around Trump’s military actions. The White House issued an internal staff-wide email last month warning employees against using confidential information to engage in financial or prediction markets.
According to the BBC data, trading volume spikes by hundreds or thousands of percent just minutes or hours before Trump’s market-moving statements reach the public. Analysts allege the patterns can resemble illegal insider trading, though some caution that traders may increasingly anticipate Trump’s interventions.
As Trump put it, “It is what it is… But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world.”
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
