US Army Special Forces Soldier Arrested for Insider Betting on Venezuela Raid

The U.S. Department of Justice has arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a Master Sergeant in the Army's special forces, for allegedly leveraging classified information to place bets on a military operation to detain Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Van Dyke, based out of Fort Bragg, was reportedly involved in the planning and execution of the raid. Federal prosecutors allege that Van Dyke used this nonpublic knowledge to gamble on the timing and outcome of the mission through the decentralized prediction market Polymarket. Between December 26, 2025, and January 2, 2026, the defendant placed 13 bets totaling $33,000. These wagers focused on whether U.S. forces would land in Venezuela and the eventual removal of Maduro. Following the operation's success, the soldier allegedly realized winnings of approximately $400,000. To conceal the profits, the indictment claims Van Dyke converted the winnings into a bridged version of USDC and transferred them to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before moving the funds into a traditional brokerage account. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton characterized the actions as clear insider trading, noting that the defendant violated the trust of the U.S. government. The DOJ further alleges that Van Dyke attempted to hide his identity by requesting the deletion of his Polymarket account after news organizations began reporting on the unusually high profits associated with the bets.