A Google security engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, has been arrested and charged with insider trading related to bets placed on Polymarket, a prediction market platform. U.S. officials allege that Spagnuolo utilized confidential information from Google to forecast user search trends, particularly regarding the most-searched individuals for 2025.
The complaint, unsealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, asserts that Spagnuolo employed an internal Google tool to track trending searches. This information allegedly enabled him to transfer approximately $3.8 million in USDC to a Polymarket account, where he operated under the username “AlphaRaccoon.”
Among the bets placed was one concerning D4vd, a rapper recently implicated in a high-profile criminal case. The complaint indicates that Spagnuolo accessed Google’s internal data showing D4vd trending just hours before placing his wager.
According to the allegations, Spagnuolo moved 5 million USDC.e from his Polymarket account to a personal wallet, subsequently transferring the funds through a swapping service and privacy tool. Some of these funds reportedly ended up in an account at a payment processor in Italy, opened using Spagnuolo’s government identification.
The complaint emphasizes that Spagnuolo had an unfair advantage over other traders, stating, “Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially valuable internal data.” It is estimated that he profited over $1.2 million from these trades.
Spagnuolo faces multiple charges, including commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. This incident marks the second significant arrest linked to insider trading on Polymarket, following a previous case involving a U.S. Army soldier who allegedly used insider information to place bets on a raid.
A Google spokesperson confirmed the company’s cooperation with law enforcement, stating, “The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action.”
Michele Spagnuolo, a Google security engineer, has been charged with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information to place bets on Polymarket. The case highlights ongoing concerns regarding insider trading in prediction markets.