Google security engineer arrested in $1 million Polymarket trading scheme

Google security The engineer was charged with crimes stemming from conducting alleged trading operations Polymarket Using confidential internal information from the tech giant. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen. He was arrested this morning in New York, as first reported by ABC News.

Spagnuolo was charged with one count each of commodity fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He has worked at Google since 2014 and was based out of the company’s offices in Zurich, Switzerland.

According to the complaint, Spagnuolo conducted trades on Polymarket from approximately October 2025 to December 2025 using internal Google data. In one case, he made a $1.2 million profit trading on the most Googled person of the year in 2025, correctly predicting that the winner would be D4vda little-known singer who became the subject of intense public scrutiny after being suspected of murder. (D4vd was eventually charged in the case in April.)

“Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these bets before the trading public did because he had access to confidential internal Google data of commercial value,” FBI Agent Brandon Racz wrote in the complaint.

This is the second known arrest in the United States for illegal activity in prediction markets. In April, a US Army Special Forces officer He was arrested For allegedly betting on the markets related to the arrest of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Both cases were brought by the Southern District of New York.

OpenAI Firing an employee earlier this year for using inside information to make trades on a prediction platform, but this is the first time a tech worker has been arrested for his alleged activity.

Polymarket has come Under fire From lawmakers due to its reputation as a center for illegal activity. Last week, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer said Fired Conduct an investigation into insider trading on prediction markets platforms and request information from Polymarket on how the company screens its clients. There are two versions of Polymarket: a smaller platform that is legal in the US and a much larger offshore version that is technically banned in the US and where traders use cryptocurrencies to place their bets.

“We are working with law enforcement in their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing materials using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to bet is a serious violation of our policies. We have placed the employee on leave and will take appropriate action,” Google spokeswoman Jacqueline Vasquez said in a statement to WIRED.

“Polymarket has worked closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the CFTC, and is the only forecasting platform to date whose collaboration has led to insider trading charges in the United States,” Polymarket spokesman Conor Brandy told WIRED. “Blockchain trading is transparent and traceable, and bad actors leave their mark. 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 He said The arrest was the result of a referral to the authorities.

Anyone can track activity on the cryptocurrency-based Polymarket platform, since all wallet transactions are public. Spagnuolo allegedly made his trades using an account with the username AlphaRaccoon, which Polymarket observers have long speculated may have belonged to a Google insider, since the odds of correctly predicting the answers to the questions he bet on were so improbable.

Earlier this month, Michael Selig, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), charged with regulating prediction markets in the United States, told WIRED that the agency is used Artificial intelligence tools to research market manipulation and insider trading in the industry.