Google security engineer was charged with crimes arising from allegedly making transactions on the Polymarket platform using confidential internal information from the tech giant. Michele Spagnuolo, 36-year-old Italian citizen, was arrested as first reported by ABC News this morning in Novel York.
Spagnuolo is charged with commodity fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He has worked at Google since 2014 and was based in the company’s office in Zurich, Switzerland.
According to the complaint, Spagnuolo transacted on Polymarket from approximately October 2025 to December 2025 using internal Google data. In one case, he made $1.2 million on a trade on who would be the most searched person of the year on Google in 2025, correctly predicting that the winner would be D4vd, a once-obscure singer who became the subject of intense public scrutiny after being suspected of murder. (D4vd was ultimately charged in this case in April).
“Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these bets before the investors because he gained access to confidential, commercially valuable internal Google data,” 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 U.S. Army Special Forces officer was arrested for allegedly betting on markets related to the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Both cases were brought by the Southern District of Novel York.
OpenAI fired an employee earlier this year for using insider information to make trades on its prediction platform, but this is the first time a technology employee has been arrested for his alleged activities.
Polymarket has come under fire from lawmakers for its reputation as a hub for illegal activity. Last week, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer fired investigation into insider trading on prediction markets platforms and requested information from Polymarket about how the company verifies its customers. There are two versions of Polymarket: a smaller platform that is legal in the US and a much larger overseas version that is technically blocked in the US and where investors exploit cryptocurrency to place bets.
“We are cooperating with law enforcement authorities in connection with the investigation. The employee accessed our marketing materials through a tool available to all employees, but using such sensitive information to place bets is a serious violation of our policies. We have placed the employee on leave and will take appropriate action,” Google spokeswoman Jaclyn Vazquez said in a statement to WIRED.
“Polymarket has worked closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Novel York and [the Commodity Futures Trading Commission]and is the only forecasting platform to date whose collaboration has led to insider trading fees in the United States,” Polymarket spokesman Connor Brandi told WIRED. “Blockchain trading is limpid and traceable, and bad actors leave a trail. We are committed to maintaining right, fair and limpid markets, as well as enforcing our policies and working with our regulators and law enforcement agencies. In a post on Polymarket’s social media he said the arrest was the result of a report to the authorities.
Anyone can track activity on the Polymarket crypto platform as all wallet transactions are public. Spagnuolo allegedly made trades using an account with the username AlphaRaccoon, which has long speculated that Polymarket’s followers may have belonged to someone from Google because the chances of correctly predicting the answers to the questions he was betting on were highly unlikely.
Earlier this month, Michael Selig, chairman of the CFTC, which is tasked with regulating U.S. forecasting markets, told WIRED that the agency was using artificial intelligence tools to hunt for market manipulation and insider trading in the industry.