U.S. soldier charged with using classified information to bet on Maduro's removal

NPR reports that a U.S. soldier has been criminally charged with using classified information about an operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket, a prediction market, allegedly profiting over $400,000 from the scheme. This marks the first criminal prosecution for insider trading on the Polymarket platform in the U.S. The NPR article is bylined by Bobby Allyn from a major national outlet with strong editorial standards. Corroboration from Reuters, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, and The New York Times all confirm the core facts—the soldier's involvement in the Maduro capture operation, the $400,000 profit figure, and the classification violations—lending strong credibility to the reporting. The case highlights a novel intersection of national security breaches and cryptocurrency-adjacent financial markets; watch for developments in the Justice Department's case and potential broader regulatory attention to prediction markets' vulnerability to insider information.