According to PEOPLES GAZETTE Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo has been criminally charged in the U.S. for leveraging confidential company data to net $1.2 million in illegal insider trading profits on Polymarket.
A Google software engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, has been charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in a New York federal court. U.S. prosecutors allege that the 36-year-old Italian citizen used his elevated data clearance to misappropriate confidential company information, using it to place highly profitable bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket.
Operating under the pseudonym “AlphaRaccoon,” Spagnuolo risked over $2.7 million on Google-related prediction markets between October and December 2025. The trades yielded approximately $1.2 million in illicit profits immediately after Google’s internal information was made public.
Reaffirming the government’s stance against corporate misconduct, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated: “As alleged, Spagnuolo violated the duties he owed to his employer and used Google’s confidential business information to make more than $1.2 million in trading profits on Polymarket.” Spagnuolo faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
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