DOJ Charges Google Employee With $1.2 Million Polymarket Bet On Search Term
Source: Slashdot
Charges
Federal prosecutors charged Google staff information security engineer Michele Spagnuolo with money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud for allegedly making $1.2 million by using insider information on the Polymarket platform. The complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York and unsealed on Wednesday.
- Source: CNBC report
- Complaint: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
Spagnuolo was arrested Wednesday morning in New York, according to ABC.
Details of the Allegations
- Spagnuolo had access to Google’s internal data systems, including a proprietary tool that provided confidential, non‑public “Year in Search” data.
- Observers on Polymarket flagged the user “AlphaRaccoon” in December for suspicious trades on “most‑searched‑person” contracts. The complaint identifies Spagnuolo as the individual behind that account.
- Google publicly announced its Year in Search 2025 results around December 4, 2025. Shortly thereafter, the AlphaRaccoon account profited approximately $1.2 million from bets tied to those results.
Additional Market Predictions
The complaint also alleges that Spagnuolo correctly predicted outcomes for several other search‑related contracts, such as:
- “Will Zohran Mamdani rank in the Top 5 most searched?”
- “Will Squid Game be the #1 searched TV show?”
Civil Action
Spagnuolo faces a separate civil case from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which accuses him of insider trading for misappropriating confidential information to trade the 2025 Year in Search contracts, violating his duties of trust and confidentiality.