Google Employee Second Person to be Charged With Prediction Market Insider Trading
Jesse M. Cox Published 01/06/2026
In the second instance of insider trading involving prediction markets, a Google software engineer is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. These charges arise from his scheme to misappropriate confidential information from his employer and use that information to place a series of profitable Google-related trades on the Polymarket prediction market platform.
Michele Spagnuolo obtained more than $1.2 million through trading on Polymarket on the basis of confidential business information he was provided access to as an employee of Google. He is accused of using the alias AlphaRaccoon to place the bets on Polymarket between October and December of 2025.
Spagnuolo had access to Google's internal data systems
Even though he resides in Switzerland, Spagnuolo was charged with placing the Polymarket bets while located in New York. United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), James C. Barnacle, Jr., announced the unsealing of the complaint against Spaguolo (aka AlphaRaccoon). He is facing charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The charges stem from Spagnuolo's scheme to misappropriate confidential information from his employer and use that information to place a series of profitable Google-related trades on Polymarket's prediction market platform. Spagnuolo appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in the Southern District of New York.
A Google software engineer, Spagnuolo, had access to Google’s internal data systems. This included an internal software tool that provided him with access to confidential, nonpublic data.
“Michele Spagnuolo allegedly abused his elevated access to confidential trends to place bets with nonpublic information and receive more than one million dollars in unlawful profits,” Barnacle said in a statement.
Trades garnered the Google employee over $1 million in profit
According to the complaint against him, Spagnuolo used the AlphaRaccoon account to place trades in various markets on Polymarket. In total, from on or about October 15, 2025, through on or about December 4, 2025, Spagnuolo used the AlphaRaccoon account to risk approximately $2,754,092 on markets related to Google’s internal information. Soon after Google’s information was publicly announced, and the markets resolved, Spagnuolo’s AlphaRaccoon account profited approximately $1.2 million based on his use of inside information in connection with bets placed on Polymarket.
"Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets," Clayton said in a statement. "The American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted.”
As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the complaint and the description of the complaint constitutes only allegations. Every fact described should be treated as an allegation.
Spagnuolo could be facing 50 years in prison
Spagnuolo, 36, is an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland. He is charged with one count of violating the Commodity Exchange Act. This charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He's also facing one count of wire fraud. That carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Finally, Spagnuolo is charged with one count of money laundering. That crime carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Previously, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a U.S. military special forces master sergeant, was charged with insider trading. He utilized his early knowledge of plans to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Van Dyke risked $33,934 to win more than $400,000 from Polymarket by betting on when the U.S. military would enter Venezuela and when Maduro's removal would take place.