US Army Green Beret Arrested Over $400,000 Bets on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has taken a Master Sergeant from the US Army into custody, accusing him of misusing confidential government information for personal financial gain. The sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, allegedly used his knowledge of an impending operation in Venezuela to place bets worth $33,000, yielding approximately $400,000 in winnings. According to the indictment, Van Dyke created a Polymarket account in late December 2025 and made 13 bets between then and early January 2026 on the likelihood of US forces landing in Venezuela, removing Nicolas Maduro, and other related events. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint against Van Dyke. As an active-duty soldier in the US Army Special Forces, Van Dyke was involved in planning and executing the operation to detain Maduro. Following the raid, he allegedly withdrew his winnings, converted them to a stablecoin, and moved the funds into a brokerage account. The matter came to light after news organizations noticed significant profits from the bets, prompting Van Dyke to attempt to conceal his identity by asking Polymarket to delete his account and changing his email address. Polymarket has stated that it identified the user trading on classified information and cooperated with the DOJ's investigation. In response to the allegations, US President Donald Trump expressed his disapproval of using confidential information for betting purposes, likening the global situation to a 'casino'.