US Army Green Beret Arrested for Allegedly Placing $400,000 in Bets on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has arrested a high-ranking Army official for allegedly using sensitive information to place wagers on a military operation in Venezuela. The master sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, is accused of using his knowledge of the impending raid to place $33,000 in bets, which yielded approximately $400,000 in winnings. According to the indictment, Van Dyke created a Polymarket account and placed 13 bets between December 26, 2025, and January 2, 2026, on contracts related to the US military's actions in Venezuela. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint against Van Dyke. The accused is an active-duty soldier with the US Army Special Forces and was involved in the planning and execution of the operation to detain former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. After the raid, Van Dyke allegedly attempted to conceal his identity and transferred his winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency 'vault' and then to a brokerage account. The case has drawn attention to the use of confidential information for personal gain, with US Attorney Jay Clayton stating that 'the defendant allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using 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 President has also commented on the issue, expressing his disapproval of the concept of betting on sensitive information.