An Italian Google employee is facing federal charges in the U.S. for insider trading, accused of using company information to make money on Polymarket.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Wednesday that Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian national living in Switzerland, had access to confidential Google data and used that data to make predictions on Polymarket as the user “AlphaRaccoon.”
Between Oct. 15 and Dec. 4, Mr. Spagnuolo placed $2,754,092 in wagers on Polymarket relating to Google’s insider information, federal prosecutors said.
Specifically, Mr. Spagnuolo made wagers on who would be the most searched person on Google for all of 2025 and who would be in the top five most searched people on Google in 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its own release Wednesday.
Mr. Spagnuolo was arrested on Wednesday in New York. He did not enter a plea at his first court hearing and was released on a $2.25 million bond.
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A Google spokesperson said the company was “working with law enforcement.”
“The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action,” the spokesperson told Bloomberg.
In all, Mr. Spagnuolo, who has worked at Google since 2014 according to Bloomberg, netted $1.2 million in profits, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Federal prosecutors charged Mr. Spagnuolo on one count of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
If he is convicted of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, he will face up to 10 years in prison, and if he is convicted of wire fraud and money laundering, he will face up to 20 years in prison on each of the two counts.
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