Google Engineer Accused of Using Insider Data to Win $1.2m on Polymarket

A Google software engineer has been charged by US authorities after prosecutors accused him of using confidential company information to place highly profitable bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in federal court in New York, Michele Spagnuolo — an Italian citizen living in Switzerland — allegedly used insider access at Google to wager on outcomes tied to the company’s annual “Year in Search” rankings.

US prosecutors say Spagnuolo used an account under the name “AlphaRaccoon” to make a series of bets connected to Google’s 2025 most-searched lists. The total volume of the wagers reportedly reached about $2.75m.

Authorities allege the bets generated more than $1.2m in profits.

One example outlined in the complaint involved indie pop musician d4vd. Prosecutors say Spagnuolo correctly predicted that d4vd would top Google’s most-searched person category shortly after accessing confidential internal data.

Spagnuolo, 36, now faces charges including commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

“Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” said US Attorney Jay Clayton from the Southern District of New York.

“Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted,” Clayton added.

The case adds to growing scrutiny around prediction markets, which have rapidly expanded beyond election forecasting into geopolitics, entertainment, military conflicts and corporate-related events. Platforms like Polymarket increasingly operate in a space that resembles a hybrid between gambling, financial speculation and information trading — raising difficult questions about what counts as insider trading when the “market” revolves around future events rather than stocks.

Google said it is cooperating with investigators and described the alleged conduct as a serious violation of company policy.

The company confirmed Spagnuolo has been placed on leave.

Polymarket also emphasized its cooperation with federal authorities.

A spokesperson for the platform said the company worked closely with prosecutors and claimed Polymarket “is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States”.

“We are committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets as well as enforcing our rules and working with our regulators and law enforcement,” the spokesperson added.

The case is not isolated. Last month, US authorities charged Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke with allegedly using classified military information to place bets on Polymarket connected to the reported abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Prosecutors say Van Dyke earned more than $400,000 from those trades.

Together, the cases are beginning to expose a new frontier in insider trading enforcement. Traditional financial markets have long been regulated around access to non-public information. Prediction markets, however, sit in a more ambiguous territory — one where political events, military operations, corporate trends and internet culture increasingly become tradable assets.