(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Army special forces soldier who was indicted last week on charges of using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Manhattan federal court and was released on bond.

Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke appeared in the same courthouse complex where Maduro appeared following the raid on his Caracas compound that Van Dyke helped plan and execute.

Judge Margaret Garnet asked how he pleaded to charges including unlawful use of confidential governmental information for personal gain.

“Not guilty, your honor,” Van Dyke said.

He was accompanied in the courtroom by his attorneys, Zach Intrater, Mark Geragos and Tina Glandian, following his arrest last week at Fort Bragg, where he is posted.

Van Dyke is currently on leave from the Army. His ultimate military status is “unsettled,” Intrater said.

The defense attorney said he expected few disputes over the factual allegations. Instead, Intrater said the case would “largely rise and fall” on motions to eliminate certain evidence and to dismiss the charges.

“This is anything but a usual case,” Intrater said.

In what is believed to be the first case of insider trading on a prediction market, prosecutors alleged that Van Dyke used inside knowledge to place 13 bets on the outcome of the Maduro operation.

According to the indictment, Van Dyke opened a Polymarket account the day after Christmas and began placing bets on Dec. 27 through the evening of Jan. 2 — hours before soldiers entered Venezuelan airspace for the pre-dawn operation. After Trump made the operation public that day, Van Dyke allegedly profited $409,881 from his $33,034 in bets.

Prosecutor Ryan Finkel said there were no plans to add defendants or bring additional charges against Van Dyke but said, “I would not entirely rule it out.”

Judge Garnet released Van Dyke on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond. His travel is restricted to California, where his family lives, North Carolina, where he is posted and New York, where he is being prosecuted.

He has surrendered his firearms. Garnet said she would modify that condition if his military service required him to possess and use a gun.

Finkel said there is a “moderate” amount of evidence in the case including Polymarket records, bank transactions, cryptocurrency exchanges and email accounts. There could also be a certain amount of classified information that would require special handling.

“The events covered by the classified information have now occurred,” Garnet said. She said the case would move faster “if evidence could be declassified to the greatest extent possible.”

Van Dyke’s next court date is Monday, June 8.

Following his arrest on Thursday, Van Dyke briefly appeared in a North Carolina courtroom on Friday. He signed a bond after acknowledging that he understood the charges and potential penalties.

His case is being overseen in New York by the same judge who is presiding over the high-profile federal case against alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione.

Amid mounting criticism of prediction markets for allegedly enabling insider trading, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said his company is “constantly” monitoring for suspicious activity and referring cases to authorities. Coplan argued that the public nature of prediction markets makes it easier to crack down on insider trading.

“The transparency afforded by onchain markets makes global compliance more effective than ever. Every trade is public, permanent, and auditable. Bad actors leave a trail,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — A man who was seen on video being beaten and wrongfully arrested by two NYPD officers at a liquor store in Brooklyn has filed a notice saying he plans to sue the department over the incident.

Timothy Brown told reporters Tuesday that he felt “humiliated, disrespected and embarrassed” by the arrest and will never be the same after the April 14 incident.

Brown, a home health aide and security guard, was buying wine at the liquor store after work when he was suddenly approached by two plainclothes detectives who allegedly seized him and attacked him as other customers looked on in shock, according to the notice of claim that he filed with the city.

“What happened to me should not happen to anyone else. It was wrong and it was disgusting. My life will never be the same,” Brown, who was seen with an apparent limp in his walk, holding a cane, and wearing an arm brace, said Tuesday.

The New York Police Department has not immediately commented on the notice, which seeks $100 million in punitive damages over several alleged claims including negligence, false arrest, assault and battery.

The incident was filmed by bystanders and the detectives were not wearing body cameras, according to the notice.

The notice states that NYPD policy requires officers to wear or activate body worn cameras during narcotics enforcement operations.

The NYPD claimed that the undercover detectives allegedly witnessed a narcotics purchase of crack cocaine and that the suspect was seen wearing the same clothes as Brown.

Police said there were no drugs or contraband found on Brown after his arrest, and that he was not the suspect they were looking for. However, the NYPD issued Brown a ticket for resisting arrest and obstruction of government administration.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office ultimately dismissed the charges against Brown.

Brown contests the accusations that he resisted arrest.

“I never resisted arrest not at all,” he said. “There was nothing I could do, I was being beating and battered.”

The detectives did not identify themselves “adequately” when confronting Brown and used “gratuitous and excessive force,”  according to the notice.

The notice contends that Brown was beaten for eight minutes, “slammed into a glass display wall and shelving stocked with glass bottles, causing numerous bottles to shatter” and thrown and dragged across the floor “through broken glass.”

Brown suffered “contusions, lacerations, a black eye, head and facial trauma and injuries to his leg,” according to the notice that he filed.

The two detectives involved in the incident — identified by the department as Volkan Maden and Michael Algerio — are under internal NYPD investigation, had their badges and guns stripped, and are serving on modified duty, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

Additionally, the narcotics module responsible for the incident has been disbanded, the supervising sergeant involved in the incident was placed on modified duty and six other detectives were reassigned, according to the notice. The NYPD has not confirmed these actions.

“We will have more to say about it as the investigation unfolds, but I understand the community’s interest in it, because it is an upsetting video,” Tisch told reporters during an unrelated news conference on April 15.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani echoed that sentiment in a social media post a day after the incident.

“The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Officers should never treat a person this way,” he said.

Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro, however, criticized the mayor’s comments in a social media post on April 15 and called for more facts to come out.

“NYPD detectives put their lives on the line daily, doing the dangerous work politicians would never have the courage to do,” he said.

Brown and his mother told reporters that they were disappointed that have not been contacted by the mayor or Tisch.

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