Soldier who made $400K betting on Maduro’s removal makes 1st court appearance
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Wall Street heliport ahead of his appearance in federal court in New York, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — The special operations soldier who was indicted this week for allegedly using classified information to make more than $400,000 betting on the capture of Nicolas Maduro appeared in a federal courtroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday.
Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who made the wager on the prediction market Polymarket, will be released on a $250,000 appearance bond.
He agreed to surrender his passport, limit travel to parts of New York and North Carolina, limit drinking “in excess,” and no longer possess a firearm unless it’s part of his active military service.
Van Dyke entered the courtroom shackled at his hands and feet and only spoke briefly to acknowledge he understood the charges and penalties. He is currently being represented by a public defender.
He is set to appear in federal court in New York City on April 28.
Federal investigators said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on Polymarket just days before President Donald Trump announced Maduro’s capture.
The series of bets — which netted more than $409,000 — immediately prompted scrutiny within the world of prediction markets and resulted in a monthslong investigation about whether inside information was used to place the bets.
Van Dyke was indicted on charges that included unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
When, after placing the bets, he saw reports about unusual trading associated with the mission, Van Dyke allegedly tried to hide the evidence of the trades by attempting to delete his Polymarket account and change the email address registered to his cryptocurrency exchange account, according to the indictment.
“Rather than safeguard that information as he was obligated to do, VAN DYKE decided to use that classified information to place trades on a prediction market platform for his personal profit,” the indictment said. “VAN DYKE subsequently tried to conceal his unlawful use of classified U.S. Government information by attempting to obscure the source of his unlawful proceeds and to disguise his connection to the accounts linked to the illicit trades.”
While prediction markets are primarily regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, suspiciously-timed trades on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have sparked concerns about insider trading. In addition to the $400,000 Maduro bet, another Polymarket user made roughly $550,000 through a series of bets related to the U.S. striking Iran and the removal of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked on Thursday what he thought about about Van Dyke’s wagers, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team.”
“Pete Rose, they kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team,” Trump said. “I’ll look into it.”
Regarding concerns about federal employees making insider trading bets on the Iran conflict and other developments, Trump said “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”
“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 favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is. No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff. But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”
(NEW YORK) — On one quiet night in Miami, a rising college football star had his life cut short in a murder that sent shockwaves through the city.
Just months before he was expected to be selected in the NFL draft, University of Miami defensive lineman Bryan Pata was tragically gunned down on Nov. 7, 2006, leaving his family, friends and teammates seeking answers for nearly two decades.
“I’ll think back how we used to spend our times together…all the good stuff. But you think, ‘Oh, man. He’s not here anymore.’ That’s when the tears flow,” Pata’s sister Ronette Pata told “20/20.”
A new “20/20” episode, “Murder at the U” airing Friday, March 6, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines the case.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
The 22-year-old had just arrived home after football practice when he was shot in the head after exiting his vehicle, according to authorities.
Dwayne Hendricks, who said he pulled into the apartment complex shortly after Pata did and found him in a pool of blood, said he was the one who called Pata’s family to deliver the news.
“I tell people to this day, that was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. It was to call his mom and say that her youngest is dead,” Hendricks — a teammate and roommate of Pata — recalled as he delivered his testimony in court years later.
Dave Howell, Pata’s teammate on the Miami Hurricanes, remembered his charisma and leadership within the team.
“His aura. It just stuck out,” Howell told “20/20.” “He always gets everybody to kind of gravitate towards him.”
Investigators began looking for suspects and discovered that Pata reportedly had issues with a teammate named Rashaun Jones, who, it was later discovered, was the only player to not attend a mandatory team meeting the night that Pata was killed.
Pata’s teammates told investigators the two had previously physically fought and Jones had threatened Pata. It was also rumored that Jones had once been romantically involved with Pata’s girlfriend, Jada Brody.
However, Pata’s case went quiet for 15 years, until an in-depth ESPN article on the investigation helped re-ignite interest in the case. Pata’s brother Edwin expressed gratitude for the sports outlet’s reporting.
“I believe one of the catalysts was the ESPN article that came out. I think that was part of it. I think also the state prosecutor also getting a little more aggressive and being much more aggressive in his approach towards arresting someone,” Edwin Pata told “20/20.”
Jones was subsequently arrested in 2021 for second-degree murder. Police cited his cell phone records and an alleged eyewitness as important pieces of evidence they said tied him to the crime.
While detained, Jones told police he had a tempestuous association with Pata.
“I mean, we had an up-and-down relationship,” Jones said. “We was teammates. I guess females got involved. So it was, I don’t know, I guess jealousy over females.”
Investigators discovered that on the morning of Pata’s murder, Jones was suspended from the University of Miami football team after testing positive for marijuana for the second time. He also changed his phone number earlier that day, they said.
However, Jones maintained his innocence, insisting he had nothing to do with Pata’s killing.
“I used to be young and wild … that ain’t got nothing to do with picking up no gun, trying to kill nobody, harm nobody with it. That’s not in me,” Jones told police.
Jones pleaded not guilty, and subsequently sat in jail for four and a half years awaiting trial due to being unable to afford bail. The trial finally began in February. The prosecution sought to build a case against Jones based upon his conflicts with Pata and the alleged eyewitness who investigators claimed placed him at the scene of the crime.
The defense countered that police never really treated Jones like a suspect or bring Jones in for a sworn statement for more than 15 years.
However on Monday, after two weeks of testimony, the judge in the case declared a mistrial as the six-person jury remained deadlocked over a verdict. When polled, one of the jurors told “20/20” that five members were in favor of acquittal, with one holdout for conviction.
The state attorney signaled they intend to move forward with trying Jones again later this spring.
Jones’ attorney Sara Alvarez said that he refused a plea deal to keep fighting for his innocence.
“Mr. Jones continues to be presumed innocent, and we will be back to fight this again at the next trial,” Alvarez said.
As the legal battle over his murder continues two decades after his death, Pata’s family still remember his warmth.
Edwin Pata told “20/20” that his brother lit up every room he walked into.
“Full of life, full of energy, positive energy. Someone who’s truly missed,” Edwin said. “It’s still hard for us today.”
A general view of wind turbines at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm, off the coast of the Guerande peninsula in western France, in Batz-sur-Mer, on December 3, 2025. (Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Wind power production will continue to advance, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to halt the growing momentum of renewable energy, experts told ABC News.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of the Interior reached a $928 million deal with French energy company TotalEnergies to end the company’s offshore wind development off the East Coast and redirect that investment into domestic fossil fuel initiatives, describing the “landmark agreement” as a way to lower energy costs and strengthen the nation’s energy security.
The move continues efforts by President Donald Trump and his administration to stall renewable energy, including the Department of Justice suing the state of California earlier this month over its electric vehicle mandate, signing an executive order last month directing the Department of Defense to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants and the Environmental Protection Agency rescinding the landmark “endangerment finding” that has served as the scientific and legal foundation for federal regulations on carbon dioxide and five other heat-trapping greenhouse gases or more than 16 years.
Offshore wind is facing the most “headwinds” from the federal government, but is still persevering, Erin Baker, distinguished professor and faculty director at the Energy Transition Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told ABC News. The actions of the Trump administration have had “very little impact” on the global increase in production of renewable energy, Baker added.
What the nearly $1 billion deal with TotalEnergies entails As part of the deal, TotalEnergies will commit $928 million to fossil fuel development in the United States, matching the amount the company previously paid for offshore wind leases. Upon meeting those commitments, the federal government will reimburse the company up to the value of those lease payments, the Interior Department said.
Citing national security concerns, the Interior Department said TotalEnergies has pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States.
“This agreement is yet another win for President Trump’s commitment to affordable and reliable energy for all Americans,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers.”
The agreement supports the administration’s push for affordable, reliable baseload energy, officials said, arguing that offshore wind projects are costly and less dependable. Ending the projects would reduce unnecessary federal spending while supporting domestic energy production, according to the Interior Department.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein described the move as “a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country” in a post on X.
Because offshore wind is installed in federal waters, the power of the federal government over offshore wind projects is higher than in onshore wind projects, Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation, a non-partisan research and analysis nonprofit that supports clean energy, told ABC News.
“I think the really unfortunate thing about this news is that offshore wind is a really, really reliable resource that can really help mitigate spiking fossil fuel prices in the winter,” she said.
The momentum for wind energy is too strong to stall, experts said Wind is the largest and most reliable source of renewable energy. It can also help energy bills stay affordable during extreme weather due to its capacity to produce fuel-free energy, Solomon said.
The power purchase agreements signed by offshore wind companies suppress electricity prices, Baker said. The companies agree to “always buy the wind when it blows,” which then brings down the entire cost to purchase electricity, she said, describing it as “good business.”
“They’re not doing it for environmental reasons,” Baker said of renewable energy companies. “They’re doing it just for business reasons.”
In 2025, wind and solar energy generated a record 17% of electricity in the U.S., up from less than 1% in 2005, according to data recently released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The total net generation from wind and solar together reached 760,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) last year, enough to power tens of millions of average American homes, according to the EIA. Wind power generated 464,000 GWh, a 3% increase over 2024.
The milestone comes amid federal energy policy changes, including the early phase-out of renewable tax incentives and other regulatory changes.
“The momentum is definitely still there,” Solomon said.
“Even though [the Trump administration] was actively trying to stop those industries, they still were growing,” Baker said.
Another benefit to wind is that it’s the type of energy that can “come online the most quickly” after it is built, Solomon said.
“In this moment, when we’re needing to build electricity generation resources really quickly to deal with low growth, data centers, [wind farms] are the ones that are going to be able to respond really quickly,” she said.
Wind and solar made up nearly 90% of new U.S. electricity capacity in 2025, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That trend is expected to continue into 2026, Solomon said.
Global renewable energy capacity is expected to more than double by 2030, according to the EIA.
Trump has long criticized wind energy Trump’s criticism of wind turbines dates back to his first term.
In 2019, Trump claimed that noises from wind turbines “cause cancer” and negatively impact property values. In 2024, during his presidential campaign, Trump stated that wind turbines “kill whales” and vowed to write an executive order on “Day 1” to end offshore wind projects.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw all areas of the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leasing. A federal judge in the U.S. District of Massachusetts ruled in December that the stop to permits on wind farms was illegal.
The deal with TotalEnergies is the latest move by the administration in an attempt to halt the increased production of wind power.
In December 2025, the Interior Department froze large offshore wind projects on the East Coast, citing national security concerns. Federal judges ruled that all five projects could resume construction, concluding that the government did not show that the risk was so imminent that it should stop.
The projects included Empire Wind, the wind farm being built 15 to 30 miles south of the coast of Long Island, and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, which started delivering to the state’s power grid on Monday, developer Dominion Energy announced.
Despite the victories for the offshore wind developers, the delays to the project have led to an uncertain investment environment and increased both the cost to build and the costs to consumers’ energy bills, Solomon said.
The impact of these actions will raise energy costs in the end, Solomon said.
A Frontier Airlines Airbus A320neo plane, owned by the Bank of Utah Trustee, taxis to a gate at Denver International Airport (DEN) on March 23, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — A Frontier Airlines flight taking off for Los Angeles from Denver International Airport on Friday night struck an individual walking on a runway, according to the airline and airport officials.
The incident occurred shortly after 11:00 p.m. local time on Runway 17L, the airline said in a statement early Saturday. There were 224 passengers and 7 crew members on board, Frontier said.
The person struck was at least partially consumed by one of the engines, an official confirmed to ABC News, causing a brief engine fire.
According to air traffic control audio obtained by ABC News, pilots reported an engine fire and smoke inside the aircraft following the incident.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday the victim had breached airport security, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence and ran onto the runway.
The person was struck by the plane during takeoff at high speed, Duffy said.
Preliminary reports are that 12 were injured and five were taken the hospital, according to the secretary.
“Emergency response and investigation are ongoing,” the Denver International Airport said earlier. “The NTSB has been notified. Runway 17L will remain closed while the investigation is conducted.”
A source briefed on the incident told ABC News that airport security was inspecting the east perimeter fence on Saturday morning for gaps and the person struck did not appear to be connected to the work occurring on a parallel runway.
“We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities,” Frontier Airlines said. “We are deeply saddened by this event.”
Local law enforcement handles airport security and is investigating the breach with support from the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration, Duffy said.
