Google Engineer Charged with Insider Trading on Polymarket, Profiting $1.2 Million

The Story

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo with using confidential company information to place profitable bets on the prediction market Polymarket. Spagnuolo allegedly used internal Google search data to wager on outcomes such as the most-searched person of 2025, netting $1.2 million in profit. He has been placed on leave by Google, and the case is the second federal criminal prosecution involving Polymarket.

Key Facts

• Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen living in Switzerland, was a Google software engineer.
• He was charged by the DOJ with commodities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and other counts for allegedly using confidential Google data to place bets on Polymarket.
• Operating under the username AlphaRaccoon, Spagnuolo placed bets on Google’s most-searched person of 2025, earning $1.2 million in profit.
• He bet on long-shot outcomes such as rapper D4vd topping the list, which traders assigned near-zero probability.
• Google stated that using confidential information to place bets is a serious policy breach and placed Spagnuolo on leave.
• Polymarket stated it cooperated with law enforcement and that it is the only prediction platform whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges.
• This is the second known federal criminal case connected to Polymarket; last month a U.S. Army soldier was charged with using classified information to place bets.

Conflicting Reports

No conflicting reports identified across sources.

Still Unclear

• The Guardian reports that Spagnuolo made a bet in October 2025 on Kendrick Lamar topping Google’s most-searched list. (Single-source claim)
• NPR reports that Spagnuolo bet nearly $1 million that Bianca Censori would not be the most-Googled person and more than $600,000 that Pope Leo XIV would not take the top spot. (Single-source claim)
• Neither source specifies how Spagnuolo accessed the internal Google data or the exact date of his arrest.

Misconceptions

No widespread misconceptions addressed in the sources.

Key Figures

Michele Spagnuolo (Google software engineer, suspect); Donald Trump (President of the United States); Jay Clayton (U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York); Olivia Chalos (Polymarket Chief Legal Officer); Jaclyn Vazquez (Google spokesperson); D4vd (musician); Bianca Censori; Pope Leo XIV.

Sources: The Guardian, NPR