Michele Spagnuolo allegedly used insider information to profit from bets on people on Google’s most-searched list. Published On 28 May 202628 May 2026A Google software engineer has been charged with fraud by US authorities after allegedly using insider information to win more than $1.2m in bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket.Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, is accused of using confidential information to wager on the results of Google’s annual most-searched list, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listUS prosecutors accuse Spagnuolo of using an account named “AlphaRaccoon” to make trades on various markets linked to the results of Google’s 2025 Year in Search.The total sum of the bets was approximately $2.75m, according to the complaint, filed in federal court in New York.Among the bets, Spagnuolo successfully predicted that indie pop musician d4vd would top the list for the most-searched for person last year, hours after accessing confidential data at Google, according to prosecutors.Spagnuolo, 36, faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.“Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement.“Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted,” Clayton added.Bets on Maduro’s captureGoogle said in a statement that it is working with law enforcement and that using confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of company policy. Advertisement Spagnuolo has been placed on leave, according to a Google spokesperson.A Polymarket spokesperson said the company had worked clo …
