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

The US Department of Justice has taken a master sergeant from the US Army into custody, accusing him of misusing confidential government information for personal gain by betting on the outcome of a Venezuela raid in which he participated. According to the unsealed indictment, Gannon Ken Van Dyke is charged with unlawful use of government information, theft, and fraud for placing $33,000 in bets, which resulted in winnings of approximately $400,000, after the raid. US Attorney Jay Clayton stated, 'The defendant allegedly broke the trust placed in him by the US government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to bet on the timing and outcome, all for profit.' Clayton described this as clear insider trading, which is against federal law. It is alleged that Van Dyke created a Polymarket account on December 26, 2025, and placed 13 bets from December 26, 2025, through January 2, 2026, on contracts related to whether US forces would land in Venezuela, remove Maduro, or invade Venezuela. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint in federal court, according to a statement released on the same day. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said, 'The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about US operations but took actions that endangered US national security and put American service members' lives at risk.' Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier with the US Army Special Forces, also known as the 'green berets,' was based at Fort Bragg and was involved in the planning and execution of the operation to detain Maduro. After the raid, Van Dyke allegedly withdrew his winnings, converted them to a bridged version of USDC, and then sent them to a foreign cryptocurrency 'vault' before moving the funds into a brokerage account, as stated in the filing. The filing notes that news organizations had noticed the large profit made from these bets, and it is alleged that Van Dyke asked Polymarket to delete his account and changed his email in an attempt to conceal his identity. In a post, Polymarket stated, 'When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ and cooperated with their investigation.' US President Donald Trump expressed his intention to look into allegations of federal reporters placing prediction market bets using confidential information during a press conference, as reported by Bloomberg. Trump said, 'The whole world has become somewhat of a casino... I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually.'