US Army Green Beret Arrested for Allegedly Betting on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has arrested a master sergeant in the Army for allegedly using classified information about a military operation in Venezuela to place bets worth $33,000, which resulted in winnings of approximately $400,000. Gannon Ken Van Dyke has been charged with unlawfully using confidential government information for personal gain, theft of non-public government information, and fraud. 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 operation in Venezuela. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint against Van Dyke. The defendant, an active-duty soldier with the US Army Special Forces, allegedly withdrew his winnings and attempted to conceal his identity by changing his email address and asking Polymarket to delete his account. The incident has sparked comments from US President Donald Trump, who expressed his disapproval of betting using confidential information, and from Polymarket, which stated that it had identified the user trading on classified government information and referred the matter to the DOJ.