US Army Green Beret Arrested for Allegedly Betting on Venezuela Raid

The US Department of Justice has taken a master sergeant from the Army into custody, charging him with unlawfully utilizing classified government information for personal financial benefit, theft of non-public government information, and fraud. The allegations stem from his involvement in a military operation aimed at detaining the former Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro. According to the indictment, the master sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, used his knowledge of the impending raid to place $33,000 in bets on Polymarket, ultimately winning around $400,000. The US Attorney, Jay Clayton, stated that Van Dyke's actions constitute clear insider trading, which is illegal under federal law. Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier in the US Army Special Forces, created a Polymarket account in late December 2025 and made 13 bets between then and early January 2026. The bets were related to the likelihood of US forces landing in Venezuela, removing Maduro, and other similar events. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint against Van Dyke. Following the raid, Van Dyke 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. The filing notes that news organizations had taken notice of the significant profit made from these bets, and Van Dyke attempted to conceal his identity by asking Polymarket to delete his account and changing his email address. Polymarket stated on X that they had identified a user trading on classified government information and had referred the matter to the DOJ, cooperating with their investigation. US President Donald Trump expressed his disapproval of using confidential information for betting purposes during a press conference.