The United States Department of Justice has charged a Google software engineer with insider trading, alleging he used confidential corporate data to place bets on the prediction platform Polymarket and made $1.2 million in illicit profits.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan identified the defendant as 36-year-old Italian citizen Michele Spagnuolo, who resides in Switzerland.
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He is accused of accessing internal Google statistics to wager on the company's most-searched list under the account name "AlphaRaccoon."
Details of the Alleged Scheme
According to the unsealed complaint, Spagnuolo placed a bet on November 27 that indie pop musician D4vd would top the annual most-searched person list.
Google officially released the statistics on December 4.
The bet yielded high returns because prediction markets had assigned a near-zero probability to D4vd, whose search metrics spiked after his arrest for murder.
In October, Spagnuolo allegedly used similar tactics by betting on rapper Kendrick Lamar to top the list, relying on internal data that confirmed Lamar's trajectory as the year's most-searched individual.
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United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton stated that authorities will aggressively pursue corporate insiders who exploit proprietary data for personal gain in prediction markets.
"Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted," Clayton said.
Google confirmed its cooperation with law enforcement regarding the security breach.
A spokesperson stated that using confidential company information to execute bets is a severe violation of internal policies, confirming that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave.
Polymarket officials noted that the platform assisted law enforcement in tracking Spagnuolo's trading history, marking a continuation of broader federal crackdowns on prediction market manipulation.
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The indictment follows a separate federal case in April, where prosecutors charged a US Army soldier for using classified intelligence to place Polymarket wagers regarding the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
