Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with fraud after alleging he used confidential Google internal information to place Polymarket bets tied to Search-related trends for 2025. Prosecutors allege the employee knew the outcomes of wagers before the public because he accessed commercially valuable internal data. The complaint was unsealed after the employee was arrested in New York and released on a $2.25 million bond. The charges include commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Prosecutors allege he made about $1.2 million from the bets using the Polymarket username AlphaRacoon. The allegations include correctly predicting search outcomes such as a singer being the top searched person in 2025.
"Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with fraud after he allegedly made $1.2 million on Polymarket bets related to Search-related trends in 2025, as reported earlier by ABC News. In their now-unsealed complaint, prosecutors allege that Michele Spagnuolo "knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data." Spagnuolo was arrested in New York on Wednesday but released on a $2.25 million bond, ABC News reports. He is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering."
"Spagnuolo made bets on Polymarket under the username AlphaRacoon, with his successful search-related wagers catching the attention of outlets like Forbes and users on social media last December. In one instance, Spagnuolo correctly guessed that a singer named D4vd would "be the #1 searched person on Google" in 2025, despite the "near-zero probability" assigned by Polymarket, according to the complaint."
Read at The Verge
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