An aerial view reveals Google’s “Googleplex” company workplace in Mountain View, California on Might 20, 2026.
Josh Edelson/AFP through Getty Photos
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Josh Edelson/AFP through Getty Photos
A Google software program engineer has been charged with utilizing confidential firm data to make $1.2 million on Polymarket, within the second identified federal legal case linked to profitable trades on a prediction market web site.
Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian citizen who lives in Switzerland, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, cash laundering and different counts for allegedly inserting bets on search developments based mostly on inside Google knowledge that tracked consumer searches.
“Not like the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the result of those wagers earlier than the buying and selling public did as a result of he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially beneficial inside knowledge,” in line with the federal indictment, which authorities unsealed on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Spagnuolo, working underneath the username AlphaRaccoon, positioned a wager that Google’s most-searched individual in 2025 could be the rapper generally known as D4vd, simply when most Polymarket merchants “assigned near-zero likelihood” to the singer, who has been charged with homicide, being the No. 1 most-Googled individual final 12 months.
The charging paperwork say as soon as Spagnuolo transferred his winnings out of his cryptocurrency pockets, he eliminated the title AlphaRaccoon from his Polymarket account.
The Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee introduced a separate civil case in opposition to Spagnuolo for allegedly violating commodities legislation.
Spagnuolo didn’t return a request for remark.
Google stated in an announcement that the corporate cooperated within the federal authorities’s investigation into Spagnuolo, who has been positioned on depart.
“The worker accessed our advertising materials utilizing a software obtainable to all workers, however utilizing such confidential data to position bets is a critical breach of our insurance policies,” stated Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez.
Whereas the legal guidelines that apply to the prediction market trade are much less strict than inventory market guidelines, what’s generally understood as “insider buying and selling,” or abusing private confidential data for revenue, is unlawful underneath federal legislation.
However in prediction market boards on messaging websites resembling Discord, customers scour markets for big, uncommon trades and encourage others to observe these bets with their very own wagers.
“AlphaRaccoon has alpha,” stated one consumer on Discord, utilizing the slang time period for any data that offers you an edge on prediction markets, pointing to Spagnuolo’s giant bets on the most-Googled individual of the 12 months earlier than Google had launched it. “Verify AlphaRaccoon account” stated one other consumer when requested how they need to guess in the marketplace.
Prediction markets websites resembling Kalshi and Polymarket have erupted in recognition in President Trump’s second time period, permitting anybody to guess on firm bulletins, geopolitical occasions, the result of artwork auctions, elections and a seemingly countless array of different subjects.
And as increasingly individuals search earnings in each side of recent life, on-line sleuths have more and more recognized wagers that seem too good to be true, suspiciously assured long-shot bets which have netted prediction market merchants six- or seven-figure earnings.
In a single such occasion final month, a grasp sergeant with the U.S. Military Particular Forces was charged with utilizing categorised data concerning the seize of Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro to rake in additional than $400,000 on Polymarket.
The Spagnuolo indictment was unsealed a day after President Trump vowed on Reality Social to permit the prediction market trade to “thrive” by asserting federal regulators’ “unique authority” over the controversial betting websites.
For months, administration officers have been combating state officers in courtroom over who ought to police the prediction market trade.
State officers say the platforms are primarily playing operations and needs to be topic to state playing guidelines, whereas the Trump administration views Polymarket and Kalshi as providing a kind of “futures contract” that falls underneath the umbrella of the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, which has traditionally overseen markets on issues like grain futures, crude oil and valuable metals.
Polymarket’s hottest platform, which is based mostly in Panama, is technically inaccessible to American customers. It was compelled to close down its U.S. operation in 2022 as a part of a settlement with federal regulators who stated the positioning was working and not using a buying and selling change license.
Two years later, the FBI raided the condo of the corporate’s founder, Shayne Coplan, as a part of a probe into whether or not Polymarket was violating that settlement.
The Trump administration dropped that investigation. Trump officers even invited Coplan to the White Home for a summit on cryptocurrency.
The president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is an advisor to Polymarket and Kalshi, and a associate in 1789 Capital, which is a serious investor in Polymarket.
