A Google software engineer based in Switzerland has been charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly using confidential internal search data to place winning bets on Polymarket, the crypto prediction market platform. The scheme reportedly netted more than $1.2 million in profits.
Michele Spagnuolo, who operated under the handle “AlphaRaccoon” on Polymarket, was arrested in New York on May 27 after the Department of Justice unsealed its complaint. He faces charges including commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
This is the second known federal prosecution involving insider trading on a prediction market, according to the DOJ.
How the scheme allegedly worked
The DOJ complaint alleges that Spagnuolo accessed Google’s proprietary internal software to obtain non-public search ranking data. He then used that information to predict outcomes in markets tied to Google’s annual “Year in Search” rankings for 2025.
