• A Google engineer has been charged with insider trading for profiting over $1.2 million on Polymarket.
• Michele Spagnuolo allegedly used confidential Google data to place strategic bets on search trends.
• The accused is involved in a rising number of insider trading cases related to prediction markets.

Michele Spagnuolo, a software engineer at Google, has been charged with insider trading after allegedly using confidential company information to make over $1.2 million in bets on the prediction market platform, Polymarket. The charges stem from Spagnuolo's actions of placing wagers on the outcomes of Google's most-searched list for 2025, relying on non-public data accessed from Google's internal systems, according to a complaint unsealed by the U.S. authorities on Wednesday, which highlights his violation of corporate governance norms NPR, Al Jazeera, CBS News, and India Times.

Spagnuolo, arrested on Wednesday, operated under the alias "AlphaRaccoon" and had utilized his access to Google's confidential data systems, risking $2.75 million in trades on the platform. He correctly predicted that indie pop musician D4vd would be the most-searched person in 2025 merely hours after viewing the internal data, a bet that was seen as highly unlikely by other users on Polymarket. Following the announcement of Google's data, Spagnuolo allegedly transferred his winnings to a cryptocurrency wallet NPR, Al Jazeera, and CBS News.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton emphasized the importance of market integrity, stating that "today's charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets." The charges come on the heels of a recent case involving a U.S. Army special forces soldier, who was also arrested for profiting from classified information related to the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Al Jazeera, India Times, and CBS News.

Google has stated that it is cooperating with the investigation and that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave. A company spokesperson remarked that while he used accessible tools, his actions constituted a serious violation of company policy NPR, Al Jazeera, and CBS News.