finance
Google Engineer Charged With Insider Trading on Polymarket
Federal prosecutors charged a Google security engineer with using internal search data to place bets on a prediction market. The case marks the second arrest tied to alleged insider trading on Polymarket.
May 27, 5:57 PM·1m read1 source
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U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The complaint states that Michele Spagnuolo accessed an internal Google tool to track the most-searched individuals for 2025 and placed bets on Polymarket markets that launched last fall. 8 million in USDC to a Polymarket account under the username AlphaRaccoon.
The complaint says the AlphaRaccoon account bet that rapper D4vd would rank among the most-searched individuals in late November. Spagnuolo allegedly viewed internal data showing D4vd trending a few hours before the bet was placed. e through a swapping service and privacy tool, with some funds later sent to an Italian payment processor account opened using Spagnuolo's government identification, the complaint states.
"Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," the complaint said.
The charges represent the second major arrest involving alleged insider trading on Polymarket. U.S. Army soldier accused of betting on a raid on Nicolas Maduro that he participated in. 2 million and took steps to conceal the source of the proceeds, according to the complaint signed by FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz.
