Google worker charged with using internal data to make $1.2m on bets

Source: BBC Technology

Arrest and Charges

A Google employee, Michele Spagnuolo, was arrested on Wednesday and brought before a federal judge in New York. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York charged him with violating insider‑trading laws after he allegedly used confidential Google information to place lucrative bets on the prediction platform Polymarket.

Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, has been released on a $2.25 million bond, according to ABC News.

Details of the Alleged Insider Trading

• The alleged misconduct involved using early‑access marketing material from Google, obtained through a tool available to all employees.
• Using that information, Spagnuolo placed bets that generated $1.2 million (≈ £894,330) in winnings.
• The bets were made with cryptocurrency on Polymarket, a platform that only accepts digital currencies.

Polymarket and the Investigation

Polymarket said it “worked closely” with authorities. A spokesperson noted that “blockchain trading is transparent, traceable, and bad actors leave footprints.”

The FBI linked Spagnuolo’s Polymarket accounts to him by identifying an account opened with an Italian identification card. The link is documented in the U.S. Attorney’s media release.

Background on Michele Spagnuolo

• Employment: Over 12 years at Google as an information‑security engineer.
• Polymarket activity: Began using the platform in 2024. Between October and December 2023, he placed $2.7 million in bets related to Google, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
• Profit: More than $1 million in profit was attributed to the use of internal information.

Court Findings

Court documents indicate that Spagnuolo’s most profitable bets involved correctly predicting who would be the most‑searched person on Google in 2025.

• He bet against names such as Bianca Censori and President Donald Trump.
• He placed a bet on the singer D4vd to become the top‑searched individual, despite the platform assigning near‑zero odds to that outcome.

The documents state that when Spagnuolo made the November bet, he already knew D4vd would top Google’s search trends because he had access to internal search data before it was publicly released.

“Blockchain trading is transparent, traceable, and bad actors leave footprints.” – Polymarket spokesperson

Related link

D4vd is currently in jail for allegedly murdering a teenage girl.