DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million

Technology DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million May 27, 20267:35 PM ET Bobby Allyn An aerial view shows Google's "Googleplex" corporate office in Mountain View, California on May 20, 2026. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images A Google software engineer has been charged with using confidential company information to make $1.2 million on Polymarket, in the second known federal criminal case connected to lucrative trades on a prediction market site. Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian citizen who lives in Switzerland, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and other counts for allegedly placing bets on search trends based on internal Google data that tracked user searches. Technology NPR went looking for Polymarket's Panama headquarters. It's elusive "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," according to the federal indictment, which authorities unsealed on Wednesday. Prosecutors say Spagnuolo, operating under the username AlphaRaccoon, placed a wager that Google's most-searched person in 2025 would be the rapper known as D4vd, just when most Polymarket traders "assigned near-zero probability" to the singer, who has been charged with murder, being the No. 1 most-Googled person last year. Sponsor Message The charging documents say once Spagnuolo transferred his winnings out of his cryptocurrency wallet, he removed the name AlphaRaccoon from his Polymarket account. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought a separate civil case against Spagnuolo for allegedly violating commodities law. Spagnuolo did not return a request for comment. Google said in a statement that the company cooperated in the federal government's investigation into Spagnuolo, who has been placed on le...