US Arrests Army Green Beret Over Alleged $400,000 Bet on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has arrested a high-ranking Army officer, Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, for allegedly using classified information to place nearly $33,000 in bets on the outcome of a military operation in Venezuela, yielding approximately $400,000 in winnings. Van Dyke, an active-duty member of the US Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, allegedly utilized his knowledge of the impending raid to inform his bets, which were placed through the online platform Polymarket. The indictment charges Van Dyke with unlawfully exploiting 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 against Van Dyke, with Chairman Mike Selig stating, 'The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about US operations and yet took action that endangered US national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way.' Following the raid, Van Dyke allegedly withdrew his winnings, converted them to a cryptocurrency, and transferred the funds to a brokerage account. The investigation was initiated after news organizations noticed the significant profit made from the bets, and Van Dyke's attempts to conceal his identity were uncovered. In response to the allegations, US President Donald Trump expressed his disapproval of using confidential information for betting purposes, stating, 'The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino... I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually.'