Google security engineer Michele Spagnuolo was arrested in New York by law enforcement, for insider trading on Polymarket, the prediction market platform. The ABC News reports, citing criminal case materials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Michele Spagnuolo is a 36-years old citizen of Switzerland. Spagnuolo has been charged with commodity and wire fraud, as well as money laundering.
Using the account under the name “AlphaRaccoon,” he constantly bet, knowing who will be the most-searched person on Google in 2025. Knowing in advance that singer D4vd would be the most searched person on Google search by the end of 2025, even though Polymarket had assessed the likelihood of this outcome as close to zero.
Later, Google published the results for its Year in Search 2025, Spagnuolo’s AlphaRaccoon account profited $1.2 million. After winning, the engineer took steps to conceal the source and ownership of the funds. The court released Spagnuolo on $2.25 million bail, with $1 million posted in cash. Google suspended the employee and stated that he accessed the data through a tool available to all company employees, while Polymarket confirmed close cooperation with authorities during the investigation.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement:
We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation. 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. We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action.
This is the second case related to Polymarket that the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has brought this year.
