A Google information security engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, was charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Federal investigators allege he placed a Polymarket bet using advance access to Google’s year-end popular search results. The bet concerned who would be Google’s most-searched person of 2025. Investigators say he correctly predicted the singer-songwriter D4vd would be #1 after Google released its year-end search data. The complaint alleges Polymarket assigned near-zero probability to that outcome when the bet was placed. Prosecutors claim Spagnuolo knew the result before the public because he accessed confidential internal data. He allegedly risked about $2.75 million through the AlphaRacoon username and netted $1.2 million.
"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. The complaint states that at the time Spagnuolo placed his bet in mid-October, Polymarket assigned a near-zero probability to D4vd being 'the #1 searched person on Google this year.' When Google published its year-end search data and D4vd came out as #1, Spagnuolo netted $1.2 million from the bet."
"Spagnuolo correctly bet, based on insider info, that it would the singer-songwriter D4vd who was implicated in the death of his underage girlfriend in Los Angeles, after her body was found in the trunk of a car registered to him in September. The bet was on what name would be Google's most-searched person of 2025, and Spagnuolo correctly bet that it would be D4vd. Investigators say he placed the bet in mid-October and profited after Google’s year-end search results were released."
"In total, from on or about October 15, 2025, through on or about December 4, 2025, Spagnuolo used the AlphaRaccoon account to risk approximately $2,754,092 on markets related to Google's internal information. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York says the trades were tied to Google's confidential internal data. Spagnuolo is accused of using that information to profit from Polymarket wagers before the public learned the outcome."
"Today's charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets. As alleged, Spagnuolo violated the duties he owed to his employer. The charges include commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, according to federal investigators. Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen who resides in Switzerland, used the username AlphaRacoon in placing his bets."
Read at sfist.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]