Google engineer made $1.2 million betting on secret company info, charged with insider trading

A Google engineer has been accused of using confidential information to make more than $1.2 million (roughly Rs 11.4 crore) in profits on the prediction market platform Polymarket. As per the US Department of Justice, the employee, Michele Spagnuolo, traded on the platform under the alias “AlphaRaccoon” and used non-public Google information to place a series of Google-related bets.

Polymarket is a prediction market platform where users can make bets on various topics, including on the release of new AI models from Google or OpenAI, as well as market valuations of companies by a given date.

The Department of Justice said Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen living in Switzerland, created the Polymarket account in May 2024. He is said to have placed bets of around $2.75 million on markets linked to Google’s internal information on the platform between October 15, 2025 and December 4, 2025.

Keep in mind that this is not the first time that there have been fears of insider trading on prediction markets. Earlier this year, the White House warned staff members not to use insider information to place bets on such platforms. Previous reports had raised concerns over government officials potentially using non-public information to make such bets.

Google employee faces up to 50 years in prison

As per the US attorney’s office, Spagnuolo profited from the bets once the information became public and the markets were settled. He has been charged under the Commodity Exchange Act, with wire fraud and with money laundering. The charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.

Spagnuolo is also facing a civil case from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which alleges insider trading.

Spagnuolo was arrested on Wednesday morning in New York. He appeared before a federal magistrate judge and did not enter a plea. The Google employee was released on a $2.25 million bond.

US Attorney Jay Clayton said, "Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets.”

The complaint said Spagnuolo had access to Google’s internal data systems, including an internal software tool that gave him access to confidential, non-public data. Prosecutors said the tool displayed a banner reading "Google Confidential" in red text, and that Spagnuolo had certified his understanding of Google’s confidentiality and ethics policies.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Michele Spagnuolo was part of the team that created the “inventory of AI Agents across Alphabet/Google.”

Google said in a statement, as quoted by CNBC, “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 company has put the employee on leave, and plans to take “appropriate action.”

What bets did the Google employee make?

As per the complaint, Spagnuolo used confidential information to place correct bets that singer D4vd would be Google’s most searched person in 2025. The complaint also said the AlphaRaccoon account correctly predicted the outcomes of other search-related markets, including contracts on whether Zohran Mamdani would rank in the Top 5 most searched and whether Squid Game would be the number one searched TV show.

According to the complaint, Google publicly announced its Year in Search 2025 results on or about December 4, 2025, after which the AlphaRaccoon account made about $1.2 million in profit on those bets. As per reports, some observers on Polymarket had flagged the AlphaRaccoon account in December over suspicious trades on the most searched person contracts.

Polymarket has stated that it is committed to maintaining accurate, fair and transparent markets and to enforcing its rules while working with regulators and law enforcement.