US Arrests Green Beret for Allegedly Betting on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has arrested a senior Army official for allegedly using classified information to place bets on a military operation in Venezuela. Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a member of the elite US Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, has been charged with unlawfully using confidential government information for personal gain and fraud. According to the indictment, Van Dyke created an account on a betting platform called Polymarket and placed 13 bets between December 26, 2025, and January 2, 2026, on the outcome of the raid, which aimed to detain Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. The bets, totaling $33,000, yielded a profit of approximately $400,000. Van Dyke allegedly attempted to conceal his involvement by deleting his account and changing his email address. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint against Van Dyke, stating that his actions endangered US national security and put the lives of American service members at risk. The incident has sparked a wider debate about the use of confidential information for personal gain, with US President Donald Trump expressing his disapproval of the practice, stating that the world has become 'a casino' and that he does not favor such activities.