Share 
A Google security engineer is facing federal criminal charges after prosecutors say he used his employer’s private data to generate $1.2 million in prediction market winnings. The case, which surfaced May 27, 2026, has drawn renewed scrutiny to the tech giant and raised fresh questions about oversight on Polymarket.
Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian national living in Switzerland, joined Google in 2014 and spent more than a decade there as a staff information security engineer. Prosecutors allege he spent part of 2025 exploiting that position for personal gain.
Google’s “Year in Search” data meant to stay internal
The scheme, as outlined in a federal criminal complaint unsealed in New York, centered on Google’s annual “Year in Search” campaign. Each December, Google publishes a list of the year’s most-searched terms, people and topics — a release closely followed by advertisers, media outlets and pop culture audiences.
Spagnuolo had access to an internal Google tool that tracked search trends before they were made public. According to the complaint, the tool displayed a prominent “Google Confidential” warning — which Spagnuolo allegedly disregarded. The data showed him which names and topics were dominating Google searches months ahead of the public announcement, and he allegedly used that knowledge to trade contracts on Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market where users buy and sell shares tied to real-world outcomes.
His position at Google created a duty to protect that confidential information and to prevent its use for personal financial gain. Prosecutors claim he repeatedly violated that obligation.
The prediction market account that won too much
Between October and December 2025, Spagnuolo purchased shares in at least 23 separate Polymarket contracts tied to Google’s Year in Search results, including wagers on who would be the most-searched person of the year and which names would make the top five.
He operated under the anonymous username “AlphaRaccoon.” The account began attracting suspicion in December, when users noticed it was winning bets that seemed too obscure to call correctly without an informational edge.
Across all his search-related wagers, Spagnuolo put more than $2.7 million at risk. His net profit came to approximately $1.2 million.
The long-shot d4vd bet that raised eyebrows
No single wager attracted more attention than Spagnuolo’s bet on singer d4vd, whose legal name is David Burke. When Spagnuolo placed that trade, Polymarket had priced d4vd’s chances of becoming the year’s most-searched person at nearly zero — a long shot that made little sense to ordinary bettors, but not to someone with access to Google’s internal data.
Spagnuolo had originally wagered on Kendrick Lamar, who headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in 2025, to top the search charts. When Google’s internal figures showed d4vd pulling ahead, he adjusted his positions accordingly.
D4vd became one of the year’s most-searched names after his suspected involvement in the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez became public in late 2025. He was formally charged with her murder in April 2026. Spagnuolo’s trades tracked that trajectory, according to prosecutors.
His wagers also covered other contracts, including whether New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would rank in the top five most-searched names and whether the Netflix series “Squid Game” would finish 2025 as the most-searched TV show of the year. He won those, too.
A crypto trail that led straight back to a real name
Google released its Year in Search 2025 results Dec. 4, 2025, and Spagnuolo’s winnings began accumulating shortly after.
What he did next helped investigators identify him: the AlphaRaccoon account transferred 5 million USDC.e from Polymarket to an external wallet, which then moved through a cryptocurrency-swapping service and a privacy tool before a portion reached an Italy-based payment processor — an account opened using Spagnuolo’s own government-issued identification.
What charges the Google engineer now faces
Spagnuolo was arrested the morning of May 27 in New York, appeared before a federal magistrate judge without entering a plea, and was released on a $2.25 million bond secured by $1 million cash. He faces commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering charges, with a maximum sentence of 50 years if convicted on all counts. The CFTC also filed a civil complaint seeking disgorgement of profits, financial penalties and a permanent trading ban.
US Attorney Jay Clayton said the charges send a clear message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to profit in financial markets.
Google puts engineer on leave; Polymarket touts cooperation
Google confirmed it placed Spagnuolo on administrative leave and is cooperating with law enforcement, calling his use of confidential data for personal trades a clear policy violation.
Polymarket said it cooperated directly with federal prosecutors and the CFTC throughout the investigation, describing itself as the only prediction market whose cooperation has produced insider trading charges in the United States.
Insider cases put prediction markets under the microscope
This arrest, reported by CNBC, follows charges filed in April 2026 against Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who allegedly used classified intelligence to bet on the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, netting more than $400,000 from roughly $33,000 in wagers. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty; his attorney called him “an American hero.” The back-to-back cases have intensified scrutiny of prediction markets’ vulnerability to insider abuse.
