Google engineer charged with fraud over Polymarket insider bets
The software engineer, based in Switzerland, faces commodities and wire fraud charges after allegedly exploiting internal knowledge of Google’s 2025 Year in Search results.
US federal authorities have charged Michele Spagnuolo, a Google software engineer, with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering following an investigation into his trading activity on the prediction market platform Polymarket. The criminal complaint, unsealed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Spagnuolo exploited confidential internal data to place approximately $2.75 million in wagers regarding the results of Google’s 2025 Year in Search.
Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen residing in Zurich, is accused of using an account named “AlphaRaccoon” to profit from non-public information. Prosecutors state that he successfully predicted that indie pop musician d4vd would top the most-searched person list, securing more than $1.2 million in profits hours after accessing the relevant confidential data at Google. The total sum of his bets across various markets linked to the annual search results amounted to roughly $2.75 million.
Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, issued a statement condemning the alleged conduct as “greed-driven”. “Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” Clayton said. “Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted.”
Google has confirmed that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave pending the outcome of the investigation. In a statement, the technology giant emphasised that using confidential information for personal gain constitutes a serious breach of company policy and confirmed its cooperation with law enforcement agencies.
A spokesperson for Polymarket highlighted the platform’s role in the prosecution, stating it was the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation had led to insider trading charges in the United States. The spokesperson affirmed the company’s commitment to maintaining fair and transparent markets and working with regulators. This case follows a similar incident last month involving US soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who was charged with using classified military information to bet on the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
