Google engineer made $1.2 million placing bets on Polymarket tapping confidential info, prosecutors say
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A Google software engineer was accused Wednesday of using confidential company information to make over $1.2 million on Polymarket in the second significant criminal case tied to trades on the prediction market platform.
Key facts
Spagnulo, under the username “AlphaRacoon,” earned over $1.2 million after he correctly wagered that D4vd, the singer accused of killing a teenage girl, would be Google’s most-searched person
Michele Spagnulo, 36, an Italian citizen living in Switzerland, is charged with one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to a federal complaint unsealed in New
Wednesday, Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, derided “greed-driven” insider trading, saying it “compromises the integrity of their markets
A Google software engineer was accused Wednesday of using confidential company information to make over $1.2 million on Polymarket in the second significant criminal case tied to trades
Summary
Michele Spagnulo, 36, an Italian citizen living in Switzerland, is charged with one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to a federal complaint unsealed in New York City. Prosecutors accuse Spagnulo of placing a series of bets from October to December based on internal Google search data that tracked user searches. “Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnulo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially valuable internal data,” the complaint alleges. Spagnulo, under the username “AlphaRacoon,” earned over $1.2 million after he correctly wagered that D4vd, the singer accused of killing a teenage girl, would be Google’s most-searched person of the year in 2025, court documents show.