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 to place bets on a military operation in Venezuela. Gannon Ken Van Dyke is accused of unlawful use of government information, theft, and fraud for placing $33,000 in bets, which yielded around $400,000 in winnings. 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. Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier with the US Army Special Forces, was involved in the planning and execution of the operation to detain former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. After the raid, Van Dyke allegedly withdrew his winnings, converted them to cryptocurrency, and moved them into a brokerage account. The investigation was initiated after news organizations noticed the large profit made on these bets, and Polymarket cooperated with the investigation, referring the matter to the DOJ.