Google Software Engineer Accused of Insider Trading on Polymarket: The Michele Spagnuolo Case
A Google software engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, has been accused of making over $1 million by placing bets on Polymarket using inside information about user searches on Google. Spagnuolo allegedly accessed confidential data from Google to make these bets, giving him an unfair advantage over other traders. He is facing charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering for his actions.
Spagnuolo used an account named AlphaRaccoon to place bets on Polymarket, including correctly predicting that the most-searched person on Google in 2025 would be the singer D4vd. Despite Polymarket assigning a low probability to this outcome, Spagnuolo's bet paid off when Google publicly announced its Year in Search 2025 results. He profited $1.2 million from his bets related to Google's search data.
Following his successful bets, Spagnuolo allegedly tried to conceal his use of nonpublic information by obscuring the source and ownership of his profits. He was arrested in New York and appeared before a federal magistrate judge, where he was released on a $2.25 million bond, with $1 million in cash required as security.
This case is the second instance this year where the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York has prosecuted individuals for fraudulent activities on prediction markets. Another individual, Gannon Van Dyke, a U.S. special forces soldier, pleaded not guilty to making fraudulent bets on Polymarket related to the raid that ousted Nicholas Maduro from Venezuela. Van Dyke had inside knowledge of the raid due to his involvement in planning and executing it.