US Authorities Arrest Green Beret Over Alleged $400,000 Bet on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has taken action against a high-ranking Army officer, Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, for allegedly exploiting classified information for personal financial benefit. Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier with the US Army Special Forces, is accused of using his knowledge of a forthcoming military operation in Venezuela to place bets worth $33,000, which yielded approximately $400,000 in winnings. The indictment charges Van Dyke with unlawfully utilizing confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, and fraud. According to US Attorney Jay Clayton, 'The defendant allegedly breached the trust placed in him by the United States Government by leveraging classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit.' The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint in federal court. Van Dyke allegedly created a Polymarket account and placed 13 bets on contracts related to the potential US invasion of Venezuela and the removal of Nicolas Maduro. Following the raid, Van Dyke allegedly withdrew his winnings, converted them to a stablecoin, and transferred the funds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before moving them to a brokerage account. The investigation revealed that Van Dyke attempted to conceal his identity by asking Polymarket to delete his account and changing his email address. In response to the allegations, Polymarket stated that it had identified the suspicious activity and cooperated with the DOJ's investigation. The incident has also drawn attention from US President Donald Trump, who expressed his disapproval of the use of confidential information for betting purposes, stating that 'the whole world has become somewhat of a casino.'