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The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo with gaining over $1.2 million by using insider information to trade on Polymarket.
The CFTC first filed a complaint against Spagnuolo on May 27, after which the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York shared charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering, with Attorney Jay Clayton stating that authorities will continue acting against those who use non-public information to gain profit on prediction markets.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Spagnuolo used the name “AlphaRaccoon” to trade on at least 23 contracts connected to Google with almost perfect accuracy. It’s believed that he used Google’s 2025 Year in Search List data to access information and bet on markets referencing Kendrick Lamar, Jimmy Kimmel, Bianca Censori, Pope Leo XIV, and d4vd. One of the contracts tied to d4vd becoming Google’s most-searched person had a probability of close to zero.
Attorney Clayton commented:
“As alleged, Spagnuolo violated the duties he owed to his employer and used Google’s confidential business information to make more than $1.2 million in trading profits on Polymarket. Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets.”
It was also revealed that the FBI had identified some cryptocurrency transfers between different wallets linked to the AlphaRaccoon account before finding out that Spagnuolo was behind it.
Google shared in a statement:
“The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies.”
Polymarket also commented on the case, stressing that the platform cooperated with the CFTC to find the person behind the crimes, and shared that the company is proud to have flagged a trader who used insider information for personal gain.
