Google Security Engineer Charged with Insider Trading

An employee at Google, Michele Spagnuolo, is facing charges of insider trading after allegedly using confidential company data to make bets on the Polymarket decentralized prediction market, resulting in winnings of $1.2 million.

Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen living in Switzerland, has been a Google employee since 2014 and appeared in court in the Southern District of New York for the charges.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also filed a civil complaint seeking various penalties against Spagnuolo on the same day.

According to the criminal complaint, Spagnuolo utilized his access to confidential “Year in Search” data, Google’s annual ranking of trending search terms, to place bets on Polymarket under the alias “AlphaRaccoon.” The data was marked as “Google Confidential.”

Starting in October 2025, Spagnuolo allegedly used this internal data tool to make bets on the appearance of specific individuals on Google’s top trending search lists. With near-perfect accuracy, he placed bets on approximately 25 unlikely outcomes, risking around $2.75 million in total.

Upon Google’s public announcement of its Year in Search results on December 4, 2025, Spagnuolo’s AlphaRaccoon account on Polymarket received winnings of approximately $1.2 million in USDC.e.

“From December 4, 2025, to December 10, 2025, the AlphaRaccoon Polymarket account received around 3,914,362 million USDC.e, which was later transferred to Wallet-0xAf6,” the complaint stated.

The FBI traced the AlphaRaccoon account back to Spagnuolo through a payment processor account registered in his name, linked to an Italian government identification card. The account was later changed to an alphanumeric wallet address after suspicions arose in online communities.

Prosecutors mentioned that Spagnuolo moved the illicit proceeds through various cryptocurrency-swapping services, including one that eliminates wallet addresses from the blockchain.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton emphasized that corporate insiders are prohibited from using confidential information for personal gain, highlighting Spagnuolo’s violation of his duties to Google. CFTC Director of Enforcement David I. Miller added that employees entrusted with confidential data cannot exploit it for financial benefits.

Spagnuolo now faces up to 10 years in prison for commodities fraud, and 20 years each for wire fraud and money laundering.