A US special-forces operator stands accused of cashing in on a prediction market by trading on classified details about a mission to capture former Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.
A US special-forces operator appeared in federal court in Manhattan this morning to face charges that he traded on classified information from a high-profile mission, parlaying his inside view into more than $400,000 in winnings on a prediction market.
According to the indictment, the soldier had access to operational details about an attempted capture of former Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and used those details to place a series of large bets on the timing and outcome of the operation. The bets, prosecutors say, were too tightly correlated with the actual events to be coincidence.
The case has triggered a small policy panic in two directions. On one end, defense officials are scrambling to tighten controls on what active-duty personnel can see and what they can do with online accounts. On the other, prediction-market operators are being asked, again, what they monitor for.
The defendant has not entered a plea. His attorneys have indicated they will fight the case, including arguments about whether the information involved meets the legal threshold for "classified" as charged.