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

A US Army master sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, has been arrested and charged with unlawfully using confidential government information for personal gain. The allegations stem from his involvement in a military operation to detain former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, during which Van Dyke allegedly placed $33,000 in bets on the raid's outcome, yielding 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 potential US invasion of Venezuela and the removal of Maduro. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also pursuing an insider trading complaint in federal court. Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier with the US Army Special Forces, allegedly attempted to conceal his identity and betting activities by withdrawing his winnings, converting them to a bridged version of USDC, and transferring the funds to a foreign cryptocurrency 'vault' and then to a brokerage account. The case has drawn attention to the issue of insider trading and the use of confidential information for personal gain, with US President Donald Trump expressing his disapproval of such practices.