A Google employee has been accused of using confidential company data to place bets on Polymarket that reaped more than AUD $1.6 million, in the latest case of alleged insider trading on the platform.
Under an account named “AlphaRaccoon,” Michele Spagnuolo made a series of bets late last year that won big, US federal prosecutors allege.
Spagnulo allegedly made a wager that D4vd — the singer accused of murdering and dismembering a 14-year-old girl — would be Google’s most-searched person of the year in 2025.
Polymarket had assigned a “near-zero probability” at the time that AlphaRaccoon made the $381 bet, the complaint said.
But just hours beforehand, Spagnuolo had allegedly accessed internal Google search data showing that D4vd had replaced Kendrick Lamar as the most-searched person of the year.
“Once he won, Spagnuolo then took deliberate steps to conceal his unlawful use of nonpublic information by attempting to obscure the source and ownership of his unlawful proceeds,” New York prosecutors said.
Spagnuolo has been charged with one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
The 36-year-old is an Italian citizen based in Switzerland who has been working at Google since 2014.
Google said Spagnuolo accessed the search data through “a tool available to all employees,” but the use of the data to make bets was a violation of company policy.
“We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation,” a Google spokesperson said.
“We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action.”
It marks the second criminal case involving allegations of insider trading on Polymarket, after US soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke was charged in April with using classified information to make more than AUD $550,000 from bets around the timing of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s capture.
The alleged bets all took the “YES” position that stated American forces would be in Venezuela, that Maduro would be “out”, the US would invade, and US President Donald Trump would “invoke war powers” against the South American nation by January 31.
Van Dyke had been involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve that saw Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia, 69, snatched by commandos from their compound on January 3, after US air strikes were carried out across Venezuela before dawn.
He has been charged with three counts of violating the Commondity Exchange Act and one count each of wire fraud and unlawful monetary transaction.
The North Carolina native faces a maximum of 60 years in prison.
Polymarket and Kalshi have both sparked controversy since they rose from fledgling start-ups to popular platforms worth more than AUD $20 billion each, with US President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. serving as an adviser to both companies.
In April, the US Senate approved a bipartisan resolution to prevent its own members from using prediction markets.
The platforms are currently blocked from trading here by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which classifies them as unlicensed gambling services.
