Google engineer accused of insider betting scheme
A Google employee has been arrested in the United States on allegations of using confidential company information to place profitable bets on the prediction platform Polymarket, reports a Qazinform News Agency correspondent.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Michele Spagnuolo, a Google engineer and Italian citizen living in Switzerland, was charged with violating insider trading laws after allegedly earning about $1.2 million through bets linked to internal Google data.
According to prosecutors, Spagnuolo used information he accessed through his work at Google to place wagers on future online search trends between October and December 2025.
A Google spokeswoman said the company was “working with law enforcement on their investigation” and confirmed that the employee had been placed on leave.
She added that the marketing material involved was accessed “using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies.”
Federal investigators allege that Spagnuolo operated under the Polymarket account name “AlphaRaccoon” and used cryptocurrency accounts to place around $2.7 million in bets related to Google data.
Court documents said one of his most profitable wagers involved correctly predicting the person who would become the most searched individual on Google in 2025.
Prosecutors claim Spagnuolo selected musician D4vd at a time when betting odds for that outcome were considered extremely low because he allegedly already knew the internal search rankings before they became public.
A spokesman for Polymarket said the platform had “worked closely” with authorities during the investigation.
“Blockchain trading is transparent, traceable, and bad actors leave footprints,” the spokesman added.
According to U.S. media reports, Spagnuolo was released on a $2.25 million bond following his court appearance in New York.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Google had announced sweeping changes to its Search engine, introducing a redesigned AI powered search experience, new autonomous “Search agents,” and tools capable of building interactive apps and dashboards directly within Search.