According to the Wall Street Journal, on Wednesday the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed criminal charges against Michele Spagnuolo, a Google software engineer, for fraud and money laundering. The indictment alleges that Spagnuolo, 36, who resides in Zurich, used non-public Google search data to place bets on Polymarket—a prediction market platform—on contracts related to “the person most searched on Google in 2025.” From October to December last year, he invested roughly $2.7 million and ultimately reaped about $1.2 million in profits. On Polymarket, he used the account name “AlphaRaccoon.”
The indictment states that this internal data was accessible only to “a limited number of employees” and showed that musicians Kendrick Lamar and d4vd both ranked among the top five most searched individuals; when Spagnuolo bet on d4vd making it into the top five, the market odds of that outcome were virtually zero. Spagnuolo appeared before a federal magistrate judge and was released after posting a $2.25 million bail bond. Google confirmed that he has been suspended from his duties and that the company is cooperating with the government investigation.
This case marks the second insider trading lawsuit brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office against Polymarket transactions. Last month, the same office charged a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier with similar offenses after he placed illegal bets using classified information about military operations targeting Venezuela’s former President Nicolás Maduro. A Google spokesperson noted that the employee utilized marketing tools available to all staff members, “but placing bets using confidential information is a serious violation of our policies.”