US Authorities Arrest Army Green Beret Over Alleged $400,000 Bet on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has arrested a high-ranking Army officer, Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, for allegedly using classified information to place wagers on a military operation in Venezuela. Van Dyke, a member of the elite US Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, allegedly placed $33,000 in bets on the outcome of the raid, which resulted in the detention of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and won approximately $400,000. The DOJ has charged Van Dyke 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 in late December 2025 and placed 13 bets between December 26, 2025, and January 2, 2026, on contracts related to the potential US military action in Venezuela. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint against Van Dyke. The agency's chairman, Mike Selig, stated that Van Dyke's actions endangered US national security and put the lives of American service members at risk. After the raid, Van Dyke allegedly attempted to conceal his identity by withdrawing his winnings, converting them to a bridged version of USDC, and transferring them to a foreign cryptocurrency 'vault' and then to a brokerage account. The case came to light after news organizations noticed the large profit made on the Polymarket bets, and Van Dyke allegedly asked Polymarket to delete his account in an attempt to cover his tracks. In response to the allegations, US President Donald Trump expressed his disapproval of the use of confidential information for betting purposes, stating that the world has become 'somewhat of a casino' and that he does not conceptually like the idea of such activities.