Google Engineer Charged With Insider Trading on Polymarket A longtime Google software engineer is at the center of a landmark insider‑trading case that tests how far traditional market rules extend into blockchain‑based prediction platforms.

Early activity and alleged scheme

Over more than a decade at Google, software engineer Michele Spagnuolo allegedly began using confidential internal search data to place wagers on the crypto prediction market Polymarket, trading under the handle “AlphaRaccoon.” According to U.S. Justice Department filings, Spagnuolo risked more than $2.7 million on markets tied to Google’s 2025 “Year in Search” campaign, which highlights the world’s most popular queries each year.

Prosecutors say he accessed internal data on the most‑searched celebrities to inform those bets, ultimately generating over $1.2 million in profits on Polymarket.

Charges are announced

On May 27–28, 2026, news broke that Spagnuolo had been formally charged with insider trading related to his Polymarket activity. Authorities allege he “used Google’s confidential business information to make more than $1.2 million in trading profits on Polymarket,” calling the conduct “greed‑driven.”

The case follows a recent Justice Department action against a U.S. Army soldier accused of exploiting insider knowledge of a planned operation to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to make $400,000 on the same platform, underscoring growing scrutiny of prediction markets.

Platform, company and regulators respond

Polymarket emphasized its cooperation with investigators, noting it “worked closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the CFTC,” and described itself as “the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States.” The company argued that blockchain trading is “transparent, traceable, and bad actors leave footprints,” presenting the case as evidence its markets can be policed.

Google has also said it is working with law enforcement, as regulators signal that betting on information‑driven crypto markets will be treated no differently from traditional securities when it involves misuse of confidential data.

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