Published on: May 28, 2026, 06:55h.
Updated on: May 28, 2026, 06:55h.
- A Google employee is under federal scrutiny for trading on a prediction market using insider knowledge
- The Polymarket user facing allegations reportedly made $1.2 million through unlawful trading
- The individual could be sentenced to 50 years in prison if convicted
A software engineer employed at Google has been charged by federal authorities for allegedly earning $1.2 million from the prediction market, Polymarket, using undisclosed information.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Michele Spagnuolo is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering for allegedly leveraging confidential information from his job at Google. The complaint details that Spagnuolo utilized insider intelligence for trading activities related to Google on Polymarket.
“Today’s indictment underscores a long-standing principle: corporate insiders are prohibited from exploiting confidential business information for personal profit. As claimed, Spagnuolo breached the trust placed in him by his employer,” stated U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.
Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen living in Switzerland, faces charges for violating the Commodity Exchange Act, along with one count each of wire fraud and money laundering. The total potential sentence amounts to 50 years behind bars.
Google Prediction Market Transactions
Federal prosecutors assert that Spagnuolo breached Google’s confidentiality and ethics standards by accessing sensitive information about who would emerge as Google’s most-searched individual in 2025. Armed with this knowledge, he allegedly began placing substantial bets on Polymarket from around October 15, 2025, until December 4, 2025.
The federal report claims Spagnuolo traded using the Polymarket username, AlphaRaccoon. Authorities suspect he reinvested his earnings into new wagers, rolling over profits and making even larger trades. His Polymarket crypto wallet is reported to have facilitated trades totaling $2,754,092 linked to Google Search results.
Under the alias AlphaRaccoon, he traded $937,688 on the “NO” position concerning Bianca Censora being the most-searched figure, $613,587 on the “NO” side for Pope Leo XIV, and $509,149 against President Donald Trump. Furthermore, Spagnuolo allegedly purchased $171,612 in “NO” shares on the prediction that Trump would not be among Google’s Top 5 Most Searched Individuals of 2025.
“Insider trading undermines the integrity of our financial markets, and the public demands effective investigation and prosecution of such greed-fueled actions,” Clayton emphasized.
According to Spagnuolo’s LinkedIn profile, he serves as a staff information security engineer, where he claims leadership of the “Agent & Web Observability sector in the Information Security team.”
Polymarket Takes Initiative
The charges against Spagnuolo are anticipated to factor into the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into allegations of insider trading within federally regulated prediction markets. In April, the DOJ also charged a military master sergeant who was involved in a mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro for insider trading involving the prediction market, accumulating $200,000 in profit.
Both Polymarket and its key competitor, Kalshi, assert that they have robust systems in place to detect and prevent questionable trading activities. Following the federal indictment of Spagnuolo, Polymarket framed its proactive integrity measures as pivotal in uncovering the case against him.
“We are pleased to announce that Polymarket’s market integrity protocols identified another trader who was arrested this morning in New York on charges of insider trading. Polymarket is leading the charge in enforcement. Blockchain trading is transparent, traceable, and those engaged in malfeasance leave identifiable tracks,” the prediction market stated on X.
Spagnuolo was apprehended on Wednesday morning in New York and has since been released after posting a bond worth $2.25 million.