Legal
Google engineer accused of turning Year in Search secrets into Polymarket payday
Feds say insider used confidential search trend data to score $1.2M in prediction market profits
A long-serving Google engineer based in Zurich faces charges in the US for allegedly profiting from confidential company information by making Polymarket bets.According to court documents, between October and December 2025, Italian national Michele Spagnuolo, 36, made a series of bets using confidential data related to Google's annual Year in Search report. What started out with a few hundred dollars placed on Kendrick Lamar being named the most-searched individual in 2025 turned into $2.75 million worth of bets related to whether specific individuals would or would not be named the most-searched in Google's Year in Search.
The criminal complaint filed regarding Spagnuolo's alleged offenses related to the following bets:
