Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 816 posts

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#71

Post by NikolaNovak »

bluegatty wrote: post #45
k310 wrote: post #9

Nabbing the little guy for show, very much like Henry Hill taking one for Paulie and the gang. The same gang that robbed the Lufthansa vault at JFK Airport, stealing six million dollars in cash and jewelry. When the history of this administration is written, provided that history itself has not been completely rewritten a la "1984," Goodfellas will be required reading/watching. And the highly profitable daily mood-in…

Everything about this statement is completely wrong. False, conspiratorial, dogmatic, juvenile. The arrest and indictment of someone for betting on Polymarket - which has not yet been tested in court - is going to give huge attention and precedence to the likely illegal activities of some of Polymarket shenanigans coming out of the white house. Edit: if this was political, it would be pushed in the other direction. T…

...

I don't think this is going to be Hacker News fascinating discourse, but the current USA administration is so openly, brazenly, continuously, gleefully corrupt; continuously fire people with ethics and competence and bring in the in-group of equally corrupt ; and have continuously been rewarded for that behaviour; that I feel the OP is merely observationally factual.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#72

Post by mil22 »

So crypto fraud gets deprioritized, with cases like the one against Nader Al-Naji dropped entirely, while Trump and his family profit massively from crypto and corruption themselves.

Yet prediction market fraud is made an enforcement priority, except to say that nobody close to Trump's own cabinet will be prosecuted - the little guys will be made an example of to make it seem like those at the top are taking the moral high-ground. "Every accusation is a confession."

I think we all can guess at the truth here.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#73

Post by janalsncm »

k310 wrote: post #9

Nabbing the little guy for show, very much like Henry Hill taking one for Paulie and the gang. The same gang that robbed the Lufthansa vault at JFK Airport, stealing six million dollars in cash and jewelry. When the history of this administration is written, provided that history itself has not been completely rewritten a la "1984," Goodfellas will be required reading/watching. And the highly profitable daily mood-in…

One soldier being arrested does not prevent others from being arrested. If anything, it sets a precedent.

Yesterday, people could justifiably say that betting on polymarket had essentially no consequences.

Today, we learned there can be consequences.

If in a year’s time this is the only person to ever be charged, that’s a different story.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#74

Post by [deleted] »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #37
RhysU wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go read a few months worth of the National Review. Many prominent conservative thinkers are not particularly big fans of Trump. They like portions of his initiatives and policies but not him as a standard bearer, because he does dumb, ill-principled stuff at odds with conservatism. Peggy Noonan of the WSJ can't write two sentences without letting you know how much she disdains Trump, e.g.

I guess I should clarify it to the modern US conservative party. I know there are a few dissenters even there, but 95% of them vote the way he wants and of course we could have impeached Trump and many cabinet officials long ago if they voted that way. They unquestionably enable this administration. I think its fair to say they represent the conservatives broadly, certainly they are the people the nations conservativ…

[deleted]

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#75

Post by Aurornis »

ElProlactin wrote: post #61
Aurornis wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As other comments said, this wasn’t exactly a “little guy” in rank. He also made it all very obvious and traceable for them through the email addresses he used. From the report it doesn’t appear that he made any effort to conceal his identity or hide his tracks until afterward, by which time it was too late.

Well, if people in Congress, the Supreme Court, the administration, etc. don't have to conceal their "activities", why should this guy? He wasn't a "little guy" but apparently his only mistake was not being high enough.

I don’t know why people are trying to defend this guy. We should be upset when anyone tries to use confidential information for personal gain. It’s also a security risk if anyone is incentivized to place bets based on confidential info.

I know you’re trying to make a separate point about Congress, but it’s silly to try to turn this into a class warfare thing. Congress didn’t even have this information at the time.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#76

Post by akudha »

k310 wrote: post #9

Nabbing the little guy for show, very much like Henry Hill taking one for Paulie and the gang. The same gang that robbed the Lufthansa vault at JFK Airport, stealing six million dollars in cash and jewelry. When the history of this administration is written, provided that history itself has not been completely rewritten a la "1984," Goodfellas will be required reading/watching. And the highly profitable daily mood-in…

When the history of this administration is written

I often think about how much we can trust history 20-30 years from now. It is hard to trust history from hundreds of years ago, either because it was written by victors or because there just isn't enough material in the first place. I suppose we have the opposite problem now (and in the future) - too much noise and junk, whole bunch of it generated by AI slop - where does one even start?

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#77

Post by bluegatty »

behringer wrote: post #59
bluegatty wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything about this statement is completely wrong. False, conspiratorial, dogmatic, juvenile. The arrest and indictment of someone for betting on Polymarket - which has not yet been tested in court - is going to give huge attention and precedence to the likely illegal activities of some of Polymarket shenanigans coming out of the white house. Edit: if this was political, it would be pushed in the other direction. T…

What? Military trials are not necessarily public.

It's by the Southern District of NY and the case will get national attention.

This is a hugely negative thing for the Administration, as District Attorneys, SEC staff, etc. are going to be actively seeking how this could parlay into investigations and indictments of the people in the White House making Polymarket and other speculative bets just before government actions.

There are 100's lawyers reading that right now getting inspired on how they can take action to turn their investigative powers onto whoever those actors are aka family members or associates of those in the White House / Cabinet.

An investigation could be done at the State Level, away from the control of the DoJ, and, if it yields evidence, it wouldn't have to even make it's way through the courts in order to be political destructive.

The suggestion by the OP this has anything to do with ideology or the ruling power throwing one under the bus is ridiculous. Note that the ruling regime isn't above such a thing, but that's not what is happening here because it definitely does not serve their interests - it's the total opposite.

This could turn into a political nightmare that crashes the party.

Edit: if we want to be 'hopefully cynical' - recognize that this could absolutely be the vector that takes the man down, or even many of them. Imagine how many WH, Cabinet Members, family members could get investigated for this and under purvue of state investigators where the investigation can't get shut down.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#78

Post by sirshmooey »

paulddraper wrote: post #47
AngryData wrote: post #38

Perfectly fine for the rich and powerful, but don't you average citizen dare do anything like it! The US law and justice system is a complete joke.

[flagged]

Predictable, wind-up doll response from the siloed information consumption crowd.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#79

Post by herewulf »

int32_64 wrote: post #67

It seems like it would be highly demoralizing to US soldiers that they are prosecuted for betting on the outcomes of the battles they are risking their lives for but those insider trading commanding them aren't.

Imagine doing an easy tour in your air conditioned Kuwaiti logistics office and then getting blown to bits by a ballistic missile because no one bothered to tell you about the war that was being initiated which would cause such missiles in retaliation. Yeah, that's demoralizing too.

Re: US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid

#80

Post by Aurornis »

dmschulman wrote: post #64
jandrewrogers wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> nabbing the little guy Politics aside, he isn't a "little guy". He apparently holds the rank of master sergeant. That's a senior battalion-level role and somewhat political. This isn't some random E-4 getting dragged.

I read this as "why are they going after a soldier who made $30k when they could be going after guys who made seven figures off of expertly timed trades on going to war with Iran"

He profited $400K.

Pursuing this case doesn’t mean they’re excluding other cases. If you read the article this case was very clear because he made amateur moves and didn’t conceal his identity at all.

This was an easy nab. All leaks should be pursued regardless of who did it.

Post reply on HN