Science & technology

Google Engineer Charged in $1.2M Polymarket Insider Bet

Is cracking down on Polymarket insider trading a win for market integrity or just a bandage on a broken platform?

MAY 28·Updated MAY 29

Google Engineer Charged in $1.2M Polymarket Insider Bet

Story

Above: The Polymarket logo on a smartphone. Image credit: Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Facts

Federal prosecutors unsealed a complaint Wednesday charging Michele Spagnuolo, a Google software engineer based in Zurich, with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering after he allegedly earned $1.2 million trading on the Polymarket prediction platform using confidential company data.
U.S. Department of Justice
Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian citizen who has worked at Google since 2014, allegedly used an internal software tool marked "Google Confidential" to access nonpublic Year in Search data. He then placed bets under the account name "AlphaRaccoon" on Polymarket.
TechCrunch
U.S. Department of Justice
Between October and December 2025, Spagnuolo allegedly risked approximately $2.75 million across 25 bets tied to Google's Year in Search results, correctly predicting that singer d4vd would rank among the most searched people when the odds were near 0%.
Wired
The Wall Street Journal
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement that "corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets." Spagnuolo appeared before a federal magistrate judge Wednesday and was released on a $2.25 million bond.
CNN
U.S. Department of Justice
Google stated that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave and that it is cooperating with law enforcement. Polymarket said that it worked closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), calling itself the only prediction platform whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States.
Wired
TechCrunch
This is the second insider trading prosecution tied to Polymarket in roughly a month. In April, U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was charged with using classified information about a military operation involving former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to make over $400,000 on the platform.
USA Today
CNBC

Sources Split

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

The CFTC and federal prosecutors moved fast and hard against this instance of insider trading in prediction markets, and that's exactly how it should work. Fraud and market manipulation aren't victimless crimes, and regulators are making clear there are real consequences. This kind of aggressive enforcement is what keeps financial markets honest.

Mike Selig on X

Narrative B

One arrest doesn't fix a platform that's fundamentally broken from the inside out. Polymarket has no Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, letting sanctioned nationals trade freely while insiders exploit the system at will. Until Polymarket either comes into full compliance or shuts down, enforcement actions are just putting a bandage on a wound.

Robert J. Denault on X