Google Security Engineer Arrested Over Alleged Polymarket Insider Trades

A Google security engineer was arrested in New York and charged with one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Prosecutors allege the 36-year-old Italian citizen used confidential internal Google data to place trades on Polymarket from October 2025 to December 2025.

The engineer has worked at Google since 2014 and was based in the company’s Zurich offices. Federal prosecutors said he made more than $1 million through the trades, including one instance in which he netted $1.2 million by correctly predicting the winner of Google’s most-searched person of the year for 2025.

According to the complaint, the engineer accessed internal Google data that was not available to the trading public. ” The account used for the trades carried the username AlphaRaccoon. Market observers had previously speculated that the account belonged to a Google insider because the odds of correctly predicting the outcomes were considered improbable.

A Google spokesperson said the employee accessed marketing material using a tool available to all employees. The spokesperson added that using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of company policies and that the employee has been placed on leave.

A Polymarket spokesperson said the platform worked closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The spokesperson stated that the arrest resulted from a referral the platform made to authorities and that blockchain trading leaves traceable records.

““We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. An earlier case involved a U.S. Army special forces officer charged with placing bets related to the capture of a foreign leader. Both matters were brought by the Southern District of New York.”