Folks, it is Friday, April twenty forth, and a story that's kind of funny, kind of shocking, and kind of surprise it doesn't happen more often. A US soldier is under arrest forgetting paid with inside information he had about the Venezuela raid. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Rose. Let's just put the number out there first. They said this US Special Forces soldier made four hundred thousand dollars betting on Venezuela and the
raid that captured Maduro. Your initial response to hearing the idea of something like this happened.
It's appalling, It's disgusting. Really, Yes, he helped plan and.
Execute the raid on Madura, and he goes online and tries to profit off of it, and that tries to is successful in profiting off of that. That is criminal. And I actually I plaud the fact that they got him and that he is being charged and he is going to face consequences.
And you know who hasn't been so hard on him yet is President Trump. We'll tell you what the President said in response to this. But yes, and folks, you're hearing it and it sounds kind of shocking, and it's making headlines. But this is a thing that people have been keeping an eye on, insider trading, as it relates to war, as it relates to our military. We'll get more into that. But ropes Pier point blank. This US Special Forces soldier arrested for placing a bet on the
Venezuela raid in which President Modureau was captured. This soldier made bets, probably about thirty three thousand dollars in bets, but he ends up making four hundred thousand.
Dollars because he knew what was going to happen. Well, you knew when it was going to happen.
Nobody's denying that add all, but.
He should have made more.
But do I mean you're gonna go for it, Go go for it all the way, go big a goal, almost like one certainty.
He knew, Hey, this is the US Special Force. This guy who put up thirty three k I don't know what his financial situation is, but he put that money. He made four hundred grand robes. Now, you called it appalling, just the idea of it, the idea of it. But others would say he was only betting on himself. He was only betting on the United States. He wasn't betting against the United States. I'm only playing devil's advocate here.
Yeah, And if you can't see this at home, because you're only listening, But I was rolling my eyes as you were saying, and that's why.
I defended myself. I'm only playing devil's advocate. That's what you were hearing there and me trying to stop an argument a real one. But this guy has now been charged with unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of non public government information commodities, fraud, Why or fraud? How did he do this? Robes? These are big problems right now. Polymarket is uh, it's the largest one out there.
But Robes these are apps sites that will allow you to bet on damn near anything that might happen in the world.
I'll be honest, I didn't know that this existed.
When I first saw the story, I thought, wait, what, how was he betting on?
What?
How would that even be a scenario? How would anyone have even known to create a category or a subcategory that Maduro would be I guess basically removed as president. And just the fact that there are millions of scenarios out there of what could happen in the world, from the small to the large, and you can place bets on them daily.
Yes you can.
This is all new to me. Is this isn't legal in every state, correct.
Or every country. It's actually has to be based. Can you need a VPN to get to it. It's based somewhere else in innother countries because it's just too much regulation they would have to get through here. But folks have been after these markets and saying these need to be regulated because of things like this role. It's kind of the wild West. You've got some side information about war, and this isn't the only case of this. We'll explain. But Rose, he's got outside information. He bet he opened
this they say in December of last year. The raid was what January? Yes, so he created this polymarket account, they say in December and just a matter of days. I believe it is. Before the raid he places a thirty three thousand dollars bet on several things, but mainly that Maduro would be out of office by January thirty one and lo and behold robes. He was right.
Yeah, that's so shocking.
But yet I believe that in total, they say he made approximately thirteen bets from December twenty seventh through January twenty six because he was involved not just in the executing of this raid, but in the planning.
Of the raids.
He new, he knew what was happening, when it was happening, how it was happening. And yes, that's why he was able to win a significant amount of cash.
So the way they put his profit, he made at twelve one hundred percent profit. That's pretty good, twelve hundred percent return.
Yeah, that's why I said he should have bet more.
That's what happened. So this happens, right, Grobes, This was flagged almost immediately, right, you can this is an odd to be right, almost immediately after placing a bet that's big, is gonna get flatted And it's so specific.
Yeah, I mean, seriously, was this on anyone's radar? No, it was not so for someone to place like a very large bet on something so out of the realm of possibilities, or certainly not even on anyone's mind.
But you know, the president had been talking about Venezuela. You remember he was playing cute with reporters about Venezuelan. What are you gonna do? Well? I don't know, I might do some stuff. I got everything on the table, so I guess maybe that could be used as part of his defense.
No, it couldn't, because he was involved specifically in the planning of when this was happening, So to say it was going to happen before specific date that was based on information he could only know, and that's classified government information that he had access to.
That is wildly criminal.
Okay, you're right, and this doesn't help. I was trying to make an argument on his behalf. But they say afterwards he tried to delete the account because it started rose before he was attached to the story. There were plenty of stories out there about this weird bet that was placed on this prediction market, so he started seeing coverage of what he had done and then started to go back. They said, try to delete the account, change
the email that was associated with account. So they said he tried to cover it, and that.
Makes obviously him look even more guilty. Although I can't even imagine he would have a defense of any kind given the access he had to the information the bet he's specifically placed. It's just kind of they say, smoking gun. This one is just like the flames are shooting out of this gun.
It's very obvious what happened.
But now I am going to actually rescind what I said. Oh before, he should have just done a small bet. Yeah, why, Like that wouldn't have raised too many He could have made a little bit of cash and probably would have been able to fly under the radar.
You know what, he should have put money on the leader of Columbia being out the leader of Cuba. You know, spread it out a little bit.
You know, he was going to take some losses, but then like go ahead and just have one.
Oh look at that.
We're talking like we've done this before. We have not. But come on, man, you can't place a bait a bet that's specific. Now they do have anonymous accounts, so your name is not attached to it, at least publicly when you see.
It, but you know someone's going to go after and look for somebody who makes that large of a sum of cash. It kind of like in reverse, don't take out like a five million dollar life insurance policy on your spouse who you're about to kill.
Like, there are just.
Certain things that are red flags when you go back and look at something when you have like a big number right before a major event, you're probably gonna get tied to it.
Arry, Yes, this isn't really a story about insider trading so much as a story about his stupidity.
Okay, Like just use your common sense, Like obviously that's going to raise eyebrows and raise red flags. And what's your excuse or defense going to be? You have none, So now you have to try to act like it wasn't me.
It wasn't me.
Take the email and they will digitally be able to trace you. Okay, there's no way you're getting out of it.
You can't say it wasn't him, as far as the account goes and robes you were just looking before we started. He can't say it wasn't me in photos either. I mean, there's there's evident we know where he was and what he was doing. He was specifically in close proximity actually to Maduros.
After the US government apprehended Maduro and transported him above the aboard the uss Ewojima, a photograph of Van.
Dyke was taken and uploaded to his Google account.
Okay, I mean, what do you do he was there? Okay, what do you do? Okay?
During the mission Okay, that's.
Been well established. We have not heard from him at this point. We have not heard from any representative of his if he has an attorney, so we don't know what his response to any of this would be. I actually don't know what the penalty is. I should look this up, but I would imagine Rose they are pretty strict.
Well, you know, look, I actually did for a second feel sorry for the guy because you look and see for him to be where he is, in the position he's in US Special Forces. This is a brave, hard working dude who has risked his life for our country and is probably as sharp as they come when it comes to just his ability to do his job. And so you appreciate men and women like him who do
what they do. And then you think, why did you take all that good, all that hard work, all that bravery and honor that you've I'm sure accumulated and it's been well earned over the years, and throw it all in the trash by trying to earn a quick buck.
That just makes me sad for him and his family, because I'm sure he probably could be a really good, decent guy who just saw an opportunity, got to did and took it, and now his entire military career and all the good he's done is probably just now swept away.
Well, you said how specialized his training is, how good he probably is at his job, how well trained. But is he well paid? This is something right robes.
So that's a fair point.
Military members are not well paid, and all of them Robes. They have the same issues and bills and problems and families that we do.
And Babe, you know what, that's a dangerous thing to have the men and women who are putting their lives on the line, who are as sharp and as smart as they are, to be hungry for money. That leaves open a lot of opportunities for problems in misconduct when you have that sort of situation occurring, when they're not being paid enough to do the kind of job and work they do.
And again i'm special for is this he probably higher up the scale than some but still that has to you think about. It was one of the first things I thought about, like, what was his situation, What is going on with him that he felt this he knew it was wrong and we don't know this at all, But rogues anytime you tell me somebody as a member of US Special Forces. I sit up straight and I respectly because we know what the hell they went through.
Just a shame. I look at it like that. Really, it's maybe it was just a massive lapse in judgment. Maybe there was some need that we don't know about that motivated him beyond greed.
But it's just a shame.
I guess it could just be greed to. It could be that simple. Now, we did hear from the President and we heard from the Department of Justice on this. I thought they had a pretty strong statement rogues about how wrong and the two statements right, the DOJ's statement against the guy was stronger than the one the President had against the guy.
All Right, the DOJ statement is this, Rather than safeguard the information as he was obligated to do, Van Dyke decided to use that classified information to place trades on a prediction market platform for his personal profit. Van Dyke subsequently tried to conceal his unlawful use of classified US government information by attempting to obscure the source of his unlawful proceeds and to disguise his connection to the accounts linked to the illicit trades.
Ah, that sounds pretty strong, pretty straightforward. But what do you think about it, mister President? When asked yesterday about this.
Situation, he says, that's like Pete Rose betting on his own team. They kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good. But he bet on his own team. I'll look into it. So he's almost saying, good for him. He was betting on the United States to actually do what we set out to do, and so he's almost kind of proud of him for that.
Okay, he might change his tune later, but what if he does in robes Because when I read that, the first thing came to mind, and it'll come to your mind probably as well. Kid Rock. Kid Rock and those helicopters on a training mission that flew by his hillside home in Nashville to salute him. They those soldiers were on a training mission and they were doing something that everybody admits now they shouldn't have been doing. There was an investigation and what happened.
Pete heggsas said, we are not going to punish our proud members of our military.
Shut the investigation down, carry on, move on, is there any chance, Robes, just that what he said there seemed to lead the way lay some groundwork, or at least give you some insight into where the President's head is on this guy, and maybe he gets a slap on the risk versus a jail sentence.
I mean that's possible.
That's possible because he was a part of this mission that President Trump is very proud of us. And perhaps maybe he'll address an issue that our special forces should be paid more so they aren't left to have to resort to these types of tactics.
That's possible. To look, anything's possible with this administration.
But this administration has been warning its own employees about this very thing. Yes, insider training when it comes to the Iran war is a big deal with big money, and it's been happening more than we even realized. We'll explain that and Robes, this soldier isn't the only one. You had three congressional candidates also placing insider trading bets on their own.
Damn racist Stay here, all.
Right, we continue here on Amy and TJ. Everybody get rich off this war, right, or at least trying to. Some are Robes we're talking about the one soldier who's now been arrested after making four hundred thousand dollars after placing a bet on whether or not Maduro would be removed from office. But Robes, this was March twenty third is the big one that a lot of people have pointed to, and a lot of members of Congress. There
have been in some of these prediction markets. Polymarket is one cow sheet with the.
Other one, I don't know about it, and Kalshi, but I don't know about any of these sites.
Never seen them, never got on them.
This has been a thing, Robes, and they have seen huge spikes in trading that have come in some instances, Robes, minutes, we're talking less than a half hour before the president makes an announcement about him doing something in the.
World that's insane.
Yes, on March twenty third, five hundred and eighty million dollars in oil stocks minutes before Trump announced he was extending the Iran deadline for opening the strait. So yes, everyone knows when President Trump says something about the strain, oil prices will either go up or down, or anything
about the Iran war for that matter. And so yes, people who have inside information about what he's going to say, can jump on and quickly place a bet because they know what he's about to say, and they know what that is going to mean for the markets.
They're looking into those robes we're talking. That's not the only instance of that, but times within minutes, you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars being placed in the direction and that the President is about seeing. Nobody is policing it because there's no regulatory arm here in the United States, because these things are based in other countries, so here in the US, you're not supposed to do it.
Use it, yep. I can get a VPN go around it. Now, I'm placing bets overseas that they have no way to regulate here. It's the wild West ros This is a big issue. This one was kind is this This one was kind of funny where they trying to make money necessarily, but three candidates various races around the country robes. They have now been fined and suspended from one of these Calshi is the name of this one. Another prediction website.
They've been suspended robes. They were betting on their own races. It didn't look like they were trying to make big money necessarily, but trying to make.
Some that's just so bizarre is that, And that's not allowed even if it's your own race.
You don't know if you're gonna win or lose.
But you do. One of the guys here, which I don't know which one it was, but it was a Senate candidate, brig and then by the way, yes, they did that need to be said.
Well, yeah, I think it is fair to say and not shocking at all.
Okay, but Virginia Senate, Canada, Texas Republican primary Canada, and Minnesota House candidate. All three of them bet on their own races. They all bet on themselves to win. But one of them bet on who would get into the race. Obviously that's his decision to make. So if he's betting on who's gonna get into the race and then he gets into the race.
Ob small like I shouldn't.
I'm not trying to minimize a state representative or anything like that, but these are small races.
Even they have online bets.
Yeah, oh yeah, you can put anything. You can bet on anything, you could there's a bet we could place a bet on when our wedding is going to be how many people are gonna be at it and we can bet anonymously and then we can go plan the wedding and then go That makes no And this is the argument that many people are making.
Money, the house money. Who's giving and paying out that money? You would think they would be incentivized to make sure that people placing the bets don't have the information to then profit from those bets.
I love how you're getting into the betting market. Yeah, swear. It's the wild West. You can't turn on the TV and there's not some advertisement about somebody betting something, usually sports bro. It's just exploded everywhere with these apps and online and you can have access all over the world and just money is flying. And yes they're trying to get everybody's trying to game the system and cheat and win big wow.
And the White House has gotten to such a level now the White House is warning its staff.
Well, yeah, that's the Yeah, they put it out right around the wrong world, told them all, hey, head's up, don't just don't do it. We want to avoid the appearance even of insider trading. So this one's not going away. Yes, the headline today is about the one soldier, but This is a big, big issue that a lot of people on Capitol Hill have been railing about. So folks, always appreciate you. Just wanted to give you a quick update as we start this Friday. Always appreciate you spending some
time with us. Of course you Morning Run will be coming your way. Also, we got another episode coming up. I believe Ropes we're gonna be. Did we decide we're gonna do Rabel or not.
We've been on the fence about it, but I think maybe we will, okay, because there's been new pictures, there has been new statements made, and this story that we thought was over with is just continuing to explode.
All right, Well, folks, look for all of that on the feed. We always appreciate you spending some time with us on TJ. Holmes on behalf of my dear Amy Robot. We'll talk to y'll soon.