Google Engineer Accused of $1.2 Million Insider Betting Scheme

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Google Engineer Accused of $1.2 Million Insider Betting Scheme

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A Google software engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, has been accused by federal prosecutors of insider trading, allegedly using confidential company information to place profitable bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket. Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, was arrested in New York on Wednesday, May 28, 2026, and faces charges including commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Prosecutors allege that Spagnuolo, using the Polymarket username “AlphaRaccoon,” accessed Google’s internal “Year in Search” data for 2025 through an employee tool. Between approximately October 15, 2025, and December 4, 2025, he allegedly placed bets totaling around $2.75 million on which public figures would be among the most searched, weeks before Google publicly released its annual report on December 4, 2025. Among the alleged bets was a correct prediction that singer D4vd would top the list, despite the market assessing a “near-zero probability” of that outcome, leading to significant profits.

Authorities claim Spagnuolo netted over $1.2 million from these wagers. Google has stated that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave and confirmed that

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