A Google employee has been charged with fraud after prosecutors said he allegedly used confidential company information to win about $1.2 million through Polymarket bets tied to Google Search trends.
The employee, Michele Spagnuolo, was accused of accessing internal Google data before the public knew the results and then using that information to place successful wagers on the prediction market platform.
According to the unsealed complaint, Spagnuolo allegedly knew the outcome of some search-related wagers before other traders because he had access to Google’s confidential internal material. Prosecutors said he placed bets under the username AlphaRacoon and correctly predicted some results connected to Google’s “Year in Search 2025” lists, including a surprising bet that singer D4vd would become the number one searched person on Google in 2025.
The complaint also said Spagnuolo allegedly bet that Pope Leo XIV and Kendrick Lamar would not appear on certain Google Year in Search lists. These lists can be difficult for the public to predict because Google does not simply rank terms by total search volume. Instead, it looks at terms that saw the biggest increase in traffic during the year, which makes the final results harder to guess without inside information.
After winning the bets, prosecutors said Spagnuolo tried to hide the source and ownership of the money. He was arrested in New York and later released on a $2.25 million bond. He is facing charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
Google said the employee accessed marketing material through a tool available to employees, but said using confidential information to place bets was a serious violation of company policy. The company has placed him on leave while it works with law enforcement. Polymarket also said its market integrity system flagged the activity and that blockchain trading leaves a traceable record.
The case adds more pressure on prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, which have already faced questions from regulators over insider trading risks. Prosecutors recently charged another person in a separate Polymarket-related case, showing that authorities are paying closer attention to how nonpublic information may be used in these markets.
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