Google engineer charged with insider trading on Polymarket
Employee allegedly used account name ‘AlphaRaccoon’ and amassed more than $1mn, charges say
A Google software engineer allegedly used confidential information to make more than $1mn on predictions market Polymarket, according to criminal charges unsealed in New York federal court on Wednesday.
Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen, used Google’s internal software tool to access confidential data to wager “substantial sums” on the top names users searched for in 2025, the complaint said.
Spagnuolo — who allegedly used the account name “AlphaRaccoon” — could not immediately be reached for comment. He appeared in federal court and was released on a $2.25mn bail.
Google said in a statement that it was working with law enforcement.
“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,” Google said. “We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action.”
Spagnuolo has been charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. According to the complaint, he “misappropriated confidential and valuable nonpublic information from his employer and used that information to place a series of Google-related bets on Polymarket”.
The Google employee “knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did . . . [and] profited more than approximately $1,200,000 from his trades based on nonpublic information”, the complaint reads.
As prediction markets have become popular and led to increased scrutiny of potential insider trading, New York federal prosecutor Jay Clayton has made cases involving the platforms a priority since becoming Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor last year.
“Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” Clayton said in a statement on Wednesday.
He has repeatedly said that he expects the office to bring cases related to the betting sites, and that the novelty of the platform would not shield people misusing information.
A Polymarket spokesperson said the group had co-operated with Clayton’s office in its investigation of Spagnuolo.
“[Polymarket] is the only prediction platform to date whose co-operation has led to insider trading charges in the United States,” the spokesperson said. “We are committed to maintaining accurate, fair and transparent markets as well as enforcing our rules and working with our regulators and law enforcement.”
Clayton, who chaired the SEC during President Donald Trump’s first term, last month announced charges against Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier involved in planning the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in January. Van Dyke is accused of placing prediction market trades on the mission, gaining more than $400,000 as a result. He has pleaded not guilty.
In March, the FT reported that a number of large bets had been placed shortly before the US attack on Iran.
Earlier this month, Polymarket launched markets allowing customers to bet on the performance of private companies, allowing them to speculate on the future valuation of companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX.