Ex-Google Engineer Arrested for Polymarket Trading Scheme

A former Google security engineer has been arrested in New York on charges tied to an alleged scheme that involved trading on Polymarket using confidential internal company data. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian national who has worked at Google since 2014 and was based in the company’s Zurich office, faces one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

According to the criminal complaint, Spagnuolo placed bets on the prediction platform between October 2025 and December 2025, leveraging proprietary information from Google. In one notable instance, he earned $1.2 million by correctly predicting that D4vd,a relatively unknown singer who later became a subject of intense public scrutiny after being suspected of murder,would be Google’s most-searched person of 2025. (D4vd was formally charged in the case this past April.)

“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,” FBI agent Brandon Racz wrote in the complaint.

This marks the second arrest in the United States tied to illicit activity on prediction markets. In April, a U. S. Army special forces officer was arrested for allegedly placing bets related to the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Both cases are being prosecuted by the Southern District of New York. While OpenAI fired an employee earlier this year for using insider information to trade on a prediction platform, Spagnuolo is the first tech worker to face criminal charges for such conduct.

Polymarket has drawn increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over concerns it has become a hub for illegal trading. Last week, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer launched an investigation into insider trading on prediction market platforms and requested information from Polymarket about how it vets its users. The platform operates in two forms: a smaller, U. S.-legal version and a larger offshore variant that is technically blocked in the country, where traders use cryptocurrency to place bets.

Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez said in a statement, “We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action.”

Polymarket spokesperson Connor Brandi told WIRED, “Polymarket worked closely with the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the CFTC, and is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States. Blockchain trading is transparent, traceable, and bad actors leave footprints. We are committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets as well as enforcing our rules and working with our regulators and law enforcement.” In a social media post, Polymarket noted that the arrest resulted from a referral it made to authorities.

Because Polymarket’s crypto-based platform records all wallet transactions publicly, anyone can trace activity on it. Spagnuolo allegedly used an account under the username AlphaRaccoon, which Polymarket observers had long suspected belonged to a Google insider due to the improbably accurate predictions he made on certain wagers.

Earlier this month, Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees prediction markets in the U. S., told WIRED that the agency is using artificial intelligence tools to detect market manipulation and insider trading in the industry.