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

The US Department of Justice has taken a US Army Master Sergeant into custody, alleging that he used sensitive government information to place wagers on a military operation in Venezuela. The operation aimed to apprehend the country's former leader, Nicolas Maduro. According to the indictment, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, the accused, is charged with unlawfully utilizing confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, and fraud. It is alleged that he used his knowledge of the impending raid to place $33,000 in bets, which yielded approximately $400,000 in winnings after the operation. The defendant's actions have been condemned by US Attorney Jay Clayton, who stated that Van Dyke's alleged actions constitute clear insider trading and are illegal under federal law. Van Dyke allegedly created a Polymarket account in late December 2025 and placed 13 bets between then and early January 2026 on contracts related to the potential US military action in Venezuela. In a related development, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed an insider trading complaint in federal court, with CFTC Chairman Mike Selig stating that the defendant's actions jeopardized US national security and put the lives of American service members at risk. As an active-duty soldier with 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 bridged version of USDC, and transferred the funds to a foreign cryptocurrency 'vault' before moving them into a brokerage account. It has been reported that news organizations had noticed the significant profit made from these Polymarket bets, and Van Dyke allegedly attempted to conceal his identity by requesting that Polymarket delete his account and changing his email address. Polymarket has stated that it identified a user trading on classified government information and referred the matter to the DOJ, cooperating with their investigation. In response to the allegations, US President Donald Trump expressed his disapproval of using confidential information for betting purposes, stating that the world has become like a casino and that he does not conceptually favor such activities.