Google Engineer Charged with Insider Trading on Polymarket
A Google engineer has been charged with using confidential information to generate over $1 million in illegal profits through the prediction market Polymarket.
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo with profiting by over $1.2 million through insider trading on Polymarket. According to a release from New York district attorney Jay Clayton, Spagnuolo, who is 36 and lives in Switzerland, allegedly used proprietary information from Google while making trades on the platform, creating an account under the username "AlphaRaccoon". Between October and December of last year, he reportedly bet approximately $2.75 million on markets tied to Google's confidential data.
James C. Barnacle, Jr., an FBI assistant director, noted that Spagnuolo had access to sensitive trends within the company, which he is accused of misusing for personal gain. The charges against him include violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, wire fraud, and money laundering, with a potential maximum combined sentence of 50 years in prison. Clayton emphasized that the charges serve as a reminder that corporate insiders are prohibited from exploiting confidential business information for profit.
Spagnuolo, identified as a staff information security engineer on LinkedIn, was reportedly involved in developing infrastructure for deploying AI agents within Alphabet. His case comes amid increasing scrutiny of prediction markets, which are facing criticism from lawmakers concerned about their potential for facilitating insider trading. Recently, Minnesota announced a ban on such markets, effective August, while other states, including California and Utah, are considering similar legislation to regulate prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi.