Google employee polymarket insider trading

Key Points:

• Federal prosecutors charged Google employee Michele Spagnuolo with fraud, alleging he made $1.2 million using insider information to bet on Polymarket that singer d4vd would be Google's most searched person in 2025.
• Spagnuolo, a staff information security engineer, accessed confidential Google internal data and used a Google internal software tool to place trades, leading to charges of money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
• The complaint revealed that Spagnuolo operated the Polymarket account "AlphaRaccoon," which made suspicious trades before Google's official Year in Search 2025 announcement, profiting significantly afterward.
• Spagnuolo was arrested in New York, appeared before a federal magistrate judge, and was released on a $2.25 million bond; Google has placed him on leave and is cooperating with law enforcement.
• Polymarket cooperated with authorities in the investigation, marking the second major insider trading case on the platform within a month, and Spagnuolo also faces a civil case from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.