Google Engineer Charged With Insider Trading on Polymarket, Earned $1.2M (GOOGL)

Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with fraud on May 27, 2026, alleging he used confidential company data to place bets on prediction market Polymarket and made about $1.2 million in illicit profits. Security engineer Michele Spagnuolo accessed an internal tool that tracked non-public information about Google’s “Year in Search” rankings, according to an indictment unsealed in New York. He then used the “AlphaRaccoon” account to wager that singer d4vd would be the top search query for 2025, prosecutors said. He also profited from bets on other Year in Search categories. The charges include wire fraud, money laundering, and commodities fraud. Google said it suspended the employee and is cooperating with authorities, while Polymarket stressed it worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the CFTC, noting the platform remains committed to market integrity. The case follows the arrest of a U.S. Army soldier in April who allegedly used classified information to bet on the capture of Venezuela’s president, marking the second high-profile insider-trading action tied to Polymarket in recent weeks.