Signage on the State of affairs Room by Polymarket pop-up bar in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, March 20, 2026.
Graeme Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Federal prosecutors charged a Google worker with fraud on Wednesday, alleging that he made $1.2 million off of bets utilizing insider info on Polymarket.
Prosecutors declare that Michele Spagnuolo, a workers info safety engineer at Google, used confidential info to position trades accurately betting that singer d4vd can be Google’s most searched particular person in 2025.
Spagnuolo has been charged with cash laundering, commodities fraud and wire fraud. The criticism, filed within the Southern District of New York, was unsealed on Wednesday.
ABC Information first reported on the criticism. Spagnuolo was arrested Wednesday morning in New York, ABC reported.
“Spagnuolo had entry to Google’s inside knowledge programs, together with a selected Google inside software program instrument that offered him entry to confidential, nonpublic Yr in Search knowledge,” the prosecutors mentioned of their criticism.
Some observers of the Polymarket platform flagged the person “AlphaRaccoon” again in December for suspicious trades on essentially the most searched particular person contracts. The criticism Wednesday mentioned that Spagnuolo was the particular person behind that account.
“Google formally and publicly introduced its Yr in Search 2025 outcomes on or about December 4, 2025. Quickly after it did so, Spagnuolo’s AlphaRaccoon account, profited roughly $1.2 million on his Google Yr in Search 2025-related bets,” the criticism mentioned.
Spagnuolo appeared earlier than a federal Justice of the Peace choose Wednesday, He didn’t enter a plea and was launched on a $2.25 million bond, ABC reported.
“We’re working with legislation enforcement on their investigation,” Google mentioned in a press release. “The worker accessed our advertising materials utilizing a instrument obtainable to all staff, however utilizing such confidential info to position bets is a severe breach of our insurance policies.”
“We have positioned the worker on depart and can take the suitable motion,” the corporate added.
“Polymarket labored carefully with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York and the CFTC, and is the one prediction platform up to now whose cooperation has led to insider buying and selling expenses in america,” a Polymarket spokesperson mentioned in a press release. “We’re dedicated to sustaining correct, honest, and clear markets in addition to imposing our guidelines and dealing with our regulators and legislation enforcement.”
Spagnuolo can also be going through a civil case from the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, the place he is charged with insider buying and selling. The criticism detailed that Spagnuolo accurately predicted the outcomes of a slew of different search markets, together with contracts like “Will Zohran Mamdani rank within the High 5 most searched” and “Will Squid Sport be the #1 searched TV present.”
“Spagnuolo misappropriated the fabric Confidential Info by knowingly or recklessly utilizing it to commerce the 2025 Yr in Search Listing Contracts in breach of his duties of belief and confidentiality,” the CFTC criticism alleged.
The federal criticism marks the second high-profile insider buying and selling case on Polymarket in simply over a month.
In April, then-active U.S. Military Particular Forces grasp sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested over expenses that he used categorized info to guess on contracts associated to the U.S. operation to seize Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro. Prosecutors mentioned Van Dyke made greater than $400,000 off his trades.