Google engineer took home $1.2 million on Polymarket using inside information, prosecutors say

A Google software engineer is accused of using confidential information to take home over $1.2 million on Polymarket. 

Federal prosecutors charged Michele Spagnulo, 36, an Italian citizen living in Switzerland, with one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, NBC News reported. 

Spagnulo allegedly placed a series of bets from October to November based on internal Google search data that tracked users' searches, according to a federal complaint unsealed in New York City. The data allowed him to know the outcome of the wagers before the trading public did because of his access to confidential internal data, the complaint alleges. 

Under the username "AlphaRaccon," Spagnulo earned $1.2 million from correctly betting that D4vd, the singer accused of killing a teenage girl, would be Google's most-searched person in 2025, according to the complaint. After winning the money, he allegedly took steps to conceal the unlawful use of nonpublic information by obscuring the source and ownership of the winnings. 

A spokesperson for Google told NBC News that the marketing material was accessed by a tool available to all employees, but using it to place bets is a "serious breach" of the company's policies. A Polymarket spokesperson said the company is the only prediction platform whose cooperation with investigations led to insider trading charges in the U.S.