U.S. prosecutors slapped insider trading charges against a Google employee this week, alleging the software engineer used confidential company information to pocket more than $1.2 million from prediction market platform Polymarket with bets on search trends.
In a complaint unsealed in New York, authorities identified the employee as 36-year-old Michele Spagnuolo — an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland who has worked for Google since 2014. Under the online name “AlphaRaccoon,” they alleged, Spagnuolo used the company’s 2025 “Year in Search” data before it was published to enter Polymarket wagers about the most trending Googled people of last year.
This week’s charges “reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Wednesday. “Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted.”
Spagnuolo allegedly made new Polymarket trades as Google’s internal search data evolved, from October into December of last year. For example, per the complaint, Spagnuolo initially wagered that Kendrick Lamar — who headlined the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — would top search trends for people last year. But after internal Google data showed that alt-pop singer D4vd was later leading the influx of searches, he placed new bets. D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged last month with murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
