Federal Authorities Charge Google Engineer with Insider Trading on Polymarket
A Google security engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, was taken into custody and charged with insider trading for allegedly betting on Polymarket regarding Google search trends, according to U.S. officials on Wednesday.
As detailed in a complaint released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Spagnuolo utilized «material nonpublic information» to wager on who would be among the most-searched individuals on Google for 2025, following the launch of these markets on Polymarket last fall.
The complaint, signed by FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz, states that Spagnuolo employed an internal Google tool to monitor the most-searched individuals and transferred approximately $3.8 million in USDC to a Polymarket wallet.
Using the username «AlphaRaccoon,» Spagnuolo placed a bet that D4vd (a rapper recently charged with the murder of a 14-year-old girl) would rank among the most-searched individuals in late November. Spagnuolo allegedly accessed Google’s internal tool, which indicated D4vd was trending, shortly before the AlphaRaccoon account made the wager.
The user AlphaRaccoon transferred 5 million USDC.e from their Polymarket account to a separate wallet, subsequently moving the funds through a swapping service and a privacy tool, as outlined in the complaint. Ultimately, some of the funds were deposited into an account at a payment processor in Italy, opened by someone using Michele Spagnuolo’s government-issued ID.
«Unlike his trading counterparts, Spagnuolo was aware of the outcomes of these bets before the general public because he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially valuable internal data,» the complaint stated. «Spagnuolo profited personally by more than approximately $1,200,000 from his trades based on this nonpublic information. After securing his winnings, Spagnuolo took conscious measures to hide his illegal use of nonpublic information by attempting to mask the source and ownership of his illicit gains.»
Spagnuolo faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, according to the complaint.
The charges filed on Wednesday represent the second significant arrest of an individual who allegedly engaged in trading on Polymarket using insider information, following the prior arrest of a U.S. Army soldier who reportedly placed bets related to the Nicolas Maduro raid in which he participated.