Lawyers for soldier who allegedly made $400,000 off Maduro’s capture returning to court
President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro speaks during a march on November 21, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for the U.S. Army special forces soldier who was charged with using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket are returning to a Manhattan courtroom Monday.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke pleaded not guilty in April after prosecutors alleged he used inside information to place 13 bets on the outcome of the Maduro raid then attempted to destroy evidence of the trades after he pocketed more than $400,000.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett scheduled the status conference to follow up on pre-trial issues, including the turning over of evidence that began last month.
During Van Dyke’s arraignment in April, his defense attorney said he expected few factual disputes over the allegations in the case and believed that the prosecution would “largely rise and fall” on pre-trial motions.
Van Dyke, an experienced special forces soldier, was released on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond. According to his attorney Zach Intrater, he is currently on leave from the Army.
As allegations of insider trading prompt public scrutiny of sites like Polymarket and Kalshi, the Van Dyke prosecution is believed to be the first case of insider trading on a prediction market.
Prosecutors in New York last month also charged a Google employee with using confidential company information to make more than $1.2 million on Polymarket.
From left to right, Donna Manitta, Fabiana Polizzi and Constance Pantazis speak outside the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office on Oct. 5, 2026. (Jared Kofsky/ABC News)
A New York entrepreneur who advertised online that she could help save people’s homes from foreclosure found herself facing charges in a Staten Island courtroom Monday.
Lauren Taliento, the president of JT Homesavers, is facing a 46-count indictment accusing her of grand larceny, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. She has pleaded not guilty.
One of Taliento’s accusers, who is not part of the criminal indictment, was featured in a recent ABC News investigation about self-proclaimed “home savers” around the country at a time when a growing number of Americans are facing foreclosure.
Prosecutors said in court that a homeowner named Miguel Mora reached out to Taliento seeking a loan modification to reduce his mortgage payments and that Taliento instructed Mora to pay her instead as an intermediary.
However, the payments “were not being forwarded to the mortgage lender and she was basically spending them herself,” prosecutors alleged.
“People like her need to be stopped,” Mora, a 60-year-old retired New York City subway conductor, told ABC News in an interview. “This is not like somebody asking you on the street, ‘Give me $5.’ Her business wants to take people’s homes and take their money. And now that she’s being stopped, I’m really happy and elated with this.”
“My credit is ruined because the 20 months of not paying my mortgage is still all on my credit report,” Mora said.
Taliento was released without bail following her arraignment. She attempted to hide her face from reporters as she left the courtroom, but called WABC-TV by phone shortly afterward to say that “this is far from a scam.”
“I truly cared about these people. I was available to them 24/7,” Taliento said. “I am in absolute shock about what has gone on.”
Mora is the only alleged victim in the indictment, but three Staten Island residents who attended Monday’s hearing said that they hope Taliento will be charged with additional crimes.
“Unfortunately we’re still working so hard to pick up the pieces from the turmoil,” Donna Manitta told ABC News.
Manitta, Fabiana Polizzi and Constance Pantazis say they each ended up losing their homes to foreclosure after paying JT Homesavers for loan modification services in an attempt to lower their mortgage payments.
“The investigation into this matter remains ongoing and additional charges may be forthcoming,” the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office told ABC News and WABC-TV in a statement.
Prosecutors asked the judge to restrict Taliento from continuing to conduct loan modification and mortgage assistance services as a condition of her release, but after the judge questioned whether he had the authority to impose such a restriction, the request was withdrawn, meaning Taliento’s business can still operate while she awaits trial.
Polizzi was featured in ABC News’ investigation into self-proclaimed “home savers” in July.
“It becomes reality to watch your whole life being loaded into trucks, and it’s worse when it’s not because you want to,” Polizzi said over the spring as she left her Staten Island home for the last time.
When asked by WABC-TV how people like Polizzi lost their homes, Taliento blamed banks, investors and predatory lending.
“It wasn’t because of me,” she said.
Taliento could face up to seven years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge she currently faces. She is due back in court in November.
WABC-TV’s Mark Crudele contributed to this report.
Volunteers help distribute food with the Atlanta Community Food Bank on March 27, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A new economic report identified a “remarkable” rise in food insecurity, potentially explaining gloomy consumer outlooks despite strong economic fundamentals.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report on Wednesday identifying uncertain access to adequate food and consumer pessimism on the rise in certain vulnerable groups across the country.
The report, which relies on newly collected data from the Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE), found a “remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children.”
It also identified “a contemporaneous increase in pessimism among the same groups, along with a sharp decline in job-finding expectations.”
The report found that between late 2025 and early 2026, there was an increase in households reporting they had to skip meals, use food banks, rely on SNAP benefits or dip into savings to cover groceries, which are up 2.9% from a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted earlier this month.The survey showed that the percentage of those who didn’t have enough food or kids missed a meal more than doubled from June 2020 to early 2026.
More specifically, it found that, of households with income under $50,000 a year, 16% reported not enough food or kids missing meals in late 2025 and 19.7% recorded those circumstances in early 2026. That’s up from just 6.7% in mid 2020.
The survey noted that 40.1% of the same subset of respondents reported dipping into their savings in early 2026 versus 37.8% in late 2025 and 29% in mid-2020.
Among respondents with a high school diploma, the survey found 10.7% had received food donations in mid-2020, compared to 18.8% in late 205 and 20.9% in early 2026.
Food insecurity, the SCE report notes, “is associated with poor health outcomes as well as lower educational attainment, worker productivity, and lifetime earnings.”
The report also highlighted the existence of “solid economic fundamentals,” such as “low unemployment, historically high household net wealth, and resilient consumer spending” despite a growing sense of consumer pessimism, suggesting “a ‘K-shaped’ economy, in which consumption growth in recent years has been driven largely by higher-income and college-educated households while lower-income households have seen fewer gains.”
It says the findings concerning food insecurity are likely a helpful guide to understanding generally low consumer sentiment, despite an economy with “solid economic fundamentals.”
“While not necessarily causal, the observed positive association between food insecurity and overall consumer pessimism, together with the increase in the incidence of food insecurity, especially among households at the bottom of the K-shape, point to a potential explanation for the unusually low recent levels of consumer sentiment at a time when the hard economic data paint a more positive picture,” the report reads.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference on Sept. 21, 2026, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday filed suit against the prediction market Polymarket, accusing it of being an illegal gambling operation that is operating in New York without a license.
The lawsuit mirrors the one James’ office filed against the prediction market Kalshi and, if successful, could affect Polymarket’s ability to operate. The suit asks a court to order Polymarket to forfeit money, distribute restitution, and pay fines.
Polymarket launched in the United States in December 2025 as a service that allowed users to bet money on the outcome of sporting events, and has expanded to allow wagers on everything from current events to weather patterns.
As the world’s largest prediction market platform, the service, according to one estimate, is on pace to facilitate more than $70 billion in trading in 2026 — more than triple the volume it handled in 2025.
Polymarket’s global website, registered in Panama, is supposed to be off limits in the U.S., and the U.S.-approved version of the site offers fewer trades than its international platform. But there is evidence that many Americans have managed to access the international site — which offers trading on subjects like war, which is banned in the U.S. — using digital workarounds, like virtual private networks known as VPNs.
James suit claims that Polymarket’s prediction market is an illegal, unlicensed gambling operation that exposes New Yorkers — including those under the legal gambling age of 21 — to serious personal and financial risk. State law prohibits wagering on games involving New York college teams and all sports betting for those under 21.
“Our gambling laws exist to protect New Yorkers, prevent the potential harms of problem gambling, and ensure funding for educational and public benefit programs,” James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Polymarket’s chief legal officer said in a statement that the platform would fight the suit.
“Polymarket was founded in a tiny NYC apartment and now has more than 350 employees here, embodying why people and businesses come here to make it. We believe in New York and we’re staying here,” said chief legal officer Neal Kumar. “While the AG’s decision to copy/paste a recycled lawsuit is disappointing, we’ll fight for our users.”
“Any time the AG’s office wants to swing by, our door is open for a conversation about how we protect consumers and offer fair, transparent and legal markets,” the statement said.
The platform has insisted its event contracts are federally regulated derivatives outside the scope of state gaming laws.
James’ lawsuit, however, said Polymarket’s prediction markets meet the legal definition of gambling because the outcomes of the events on which its users are betting are uncertain and outside the control of the bettor, or hinge on a game of chance.
Despite this, the lawsuit said, Polymarket has failed to obtain a license from the New York State Gaming Commission, allegedly sidestepping its obligation to pay taxes like licensed casinos and mobile sports gambling platforms do.
Multiple lawsuits across the country claim prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi fall under state jurisdiction — but if James’ suit is successful, Polymarket could be forced to pay billions of dollars and change the way it operates nationwide.
“By running an unlicensed gambling operation, Polymarket has done more than just knowingly violate state law, they have put New Yorkers at risk, especially those underage who are most vulnerable to problem gaming,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement at the time of the filing of the suit.
