US Authorities Arrest Green Beret Over Alleged $400,000 Betting Scandal on Venezuela Operation

The US Department of Justice has arrested a high-ranking Army official, Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, for allegedly using classified information about a military operation in Venezuela to place bets worth $33,000, which yielded approximately $400,000 in winnings. The operation aimed to apprehend former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier with the US Army Special Forces, also known as the 'green berets,' allegedly created a Polymarket account in late December 2025 and made multiple bets on the outcome of the operation. Following the raid, he reportedly 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 US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint against Van Dyke. The case has drawn attention to the issue of insider trading and the use of confidential information for personal gain, with US President Donald Trump expressing his disapproval of such practices.