Google Engineer Charged With $1.2M Polymarket Insider Trades

Federal prosecutors charged a Google engineer with using nonpublic company data to place more than $2.75 million in bets on Polymarket, generating roughly $1.2 million in profits before the trades were detected.

Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian national working as a staff information security engineer in Zurich, allegedly accessed Google's internal Year in Search dataset multiple times between October and December 2025. Court filings describe an account named AlphaRaccoon that placed small initial wagers on search rankings for figures including Kendrick Lamar and later scaled up to positions exceeding $900,000 on outcomes involving Bianca Censori and Donald Trump. The data carried explicit confidentiality markings and was restricted to a limited group of employees.

After Google published its Year in Search report on December 4, 2025, the account converted its holdings into approximately $1.2 million in realized gains, according to the criminal complaint. Blockchain records cited by the FBI show the wallet's 5.045 million USDC.e balance was then moved through decentralized exchanges and privacy services. Spagnuolo was arrested on May 27.

The charges—commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering—carry a combined maximum penalty of 50 years. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated that corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to profit in markets. FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle Jr. said the case targets employees who betray employers for personal financial gain.

Prediction markets have drawn separate regulatory attention. Minnesota recently enacted a ban scheduled for August, and federal lawmakers have introduced measures aimed at restricting such platforms. Polymarket maintains that it blocks certain high-risk participants in advance.