Prosecutors said Michele Spagnuolo used confidential Google trend data to place winning bets before the information became public.
WASHINGTON — A Google software engineer has been charged with insider trading and fraud after federal prosecutors alleged he used confidential company data to make more than $1.2 million betting on prediction markets tied to Google search trends.
Federal prosecutors in New York said that Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen living in Switzerland, faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
According to the complaint, Spagnuolo allegedly used confidential internal Google data to place profitable trades on Polymarket under the username “AlphaRaccoon.”
Prosecutors said Spagnuolo worked as a software engineer at Google and had access to internal systems containing nonpublic company information. Authorities alleged he used that access to place bets tied to Google search trends before the information became public.
“Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement released by the Justice Department.
The complaint alleges Spagnuolo placed approximately $2.75 million in trades between October and December 2025 tied to Google-related information and earned roughly $1.2 million in profits once the information became public and markets resolved.
According to NBC News, prosecutors alleged Spagnuolo correctly wagered that singer D4vd would become Google’s most-searched person of the year in 2025, despite the prediction market initially assigning “a near-zero probability” to that outcome.
“Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnulo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially valuable internal data,” the complaint says.
The Justice Department said Spagnuolo had acknowledged Google confidentiality and ethics policies and that some of the internal systems he accessed displayed “Google Confidential” warnings.
A Google spokesperson told NBC News the company is cooperating with investigators.
“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,” the spokesperson said, according to NBC News. The spokesperson added that the employee has been placed on leave.
A spokesperson for Polymarket told NBC News the company cooperated with investigators and said it is “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets.”
The charges mark the second major criminal case this year involving alleged insider trading tied to Polymarket. Earlier this year, federal prosecutors charged a U.S. Special Forces soldier with allegedly using classified information to place bets connected to Venezuela.
If convicted, Spagnuolo faces a maximum sentence of 10 years on the commodities fraud charge and up to 20 years each on the wire fraud and money laundering charges.