Michele Spagnuolo, a software engineer at Google, has been accused of using confidential company information to make over $1.2 million on the prediction market Polymarket through insider trading. According to federal charges unsealed on Wednesday, Spagnuolo allegedly used an internal company tool late last year to access data on Google's top-trending searches of 2025 and placed bets on Polymarket based on this information.
Key Takeaways
Michele Spagnuolo, a Google software engineer, was charged with insider trading for using confidential company data to make over $1.2 million on Polymarket. He accessed internal information about Google's top-trending searches of 2025 and placed successful bets, including predicting D4vd as the most searched person. Spagnuolo faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The most widely searched person of 2025 was D4vd, a singer who drew nationwide attention after a 15-year-old's dismembered body was found in the trunk of a car registered to him. Spagnuolo, using the username AlphaRaccoon on Polymarket, correctly bet hundreds of dollars that D4vd would be among the most widely searched people at a time when the market assessed the odds as slim.
The total sum of the bets was approximately $2.75 million, according to the complaint filed in federal court in New York. Spagnuolo faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a civil lawsuit against him on similar grounds.
Spagnuolo was arrested in New York on Wednesday and appeared before a magistrate judge who released him on $2.25 million bond. US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton stated, 'Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets.' He added that insider trading compromises market integrity and must be prosecuted.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave and the tech giant is cooperating with law enforcement. Polymarket stated that it flagged the trader and worked closely with federal authorities, calling itself 'the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States.'
The charges against Spagnuolo come one month after a U.S. special forces soldier was arrested for allegedly winning over $400,000 by betting on the raid to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro before news of the raid was made public.
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