Google employee charged with insider trading at Polymarket betting | Crime Stories

Michele Spagnuolo says she used insider information to profit from betting on Google’s top search rankings.

A Google software developer has been charged with fraud by US authorities after he used insider information to win more than $1.2m on bets on the Polymarket prediction market.

Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen living in Switzerland, is accused of using privacy to hide the results of Google’s most searched list of the year, according to a verdict that was not updated Wednesday.

US prosecutors accuse Spagnuolo of using an account called “AlphaRaccoon” to make trades on various markets linked to the results of Google’s 2025 Year in Search.

The total value of the bets was about $2.75m, according to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in New York.

Among the bets, Spagnuolo predicted that indie pop song d4vd would top last year’s most-searched list, hours after he discovered Google’s secrets, according to critics.

Spagnuolo, 36, is charged with corruption, wire fraud and money laundering.

“Today’s crimes reinforce a decades-old message: insiders cannot use trade secrets to profit in our markets,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement.

“Insider trading undermines the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greedy behavior investigated and prosecuted,” added Clayton.

Betting on Maduro’s capture

Google said in a statement that it is working with authorities and that using privacy for betting is a serious violation of company policy.

Spagnuolo has been placed on leave, according to a Google spokesperson.

A spokesperson for Polymarket said the company cooperated with the US Attorney’s office in the investigation and that the company “is the only predictive unit to date whose contract has resulted in a sale in the United States”.

“We are committed to maintaining fair, fair, and transparent markets and to complying with our rules and working with regulators and law enforcement,” the spokesperson said.

Last month, the US soldier was crestrictions and use military information bets on Polymarket related to the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Prosecutors accuse Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, of taking part in the US mission against Maduro, more than $ 400,000.