Michele Spagnuolo Google Insider Trading: $1.2M Profit on Polymarket Using Confidential Search Data

# Michele Spagnuolo Google Insider Trading: $1.2M Profit on Polymarket Using Confidential Search Data

> **Quick answer:** Michele Spagnuolo, a 12-year Google staff engineer, was charged on May 27, 2026 with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering after allegedly using internal Google data — showing who would appear on the 2025 Year in Search list — to bet $2.7 million on Polymarket under the alias "AlphaRaccoon." He made $1.2 million in profit. He was arrested in New York, appeared before a federal magistrate, did not enter a plea, and was released on a $2.25 million bond. He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Michele Spagnuolo Google insider trading charges represent a landmark moment in the regulation of prediction markets. A 12-year veteran at one of the world's most powerful technology companies allegedly used the ultimate cheat code — knowing the answer before the question closed — to turn confidential employer data into $1.2 million in personal profit on a crypto prediction platform.

## What Happened: The Scheme Federal Prosecutors Allege

Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian national living in Switzerland, worked as a staff information security engineer at Google. According to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York on May 27, 2026, he accessed an internal Google marketing data tool — marked "Google Confidential" in red text at the top — that showed which celebrities and public figures were trending most on Google Search. This tool was built to support Google's annual "Year in Search" campaign, which reveals the most-searched people, topics, and events of the calendar year.

Between October 15 and December 4, 2025, Spagnuolo allegedly checked that internal tool and then, within hours, logged into Polymarket under the username "AlphaRaccoon" to place bets on exactly those outcomes. Polymarket is a crypto-based prediction market where users buy and sell shares on real-world events. The contracts Spagnuolo targeted asked questions like: "Who will be the #1 most-searched person on Google in 2025?" and "Will [Name] be in the Top 5 Most Searched People on Google 2025?"