US authorities have charged a Google employee with allegedly using information from the company to make bets on Polymarket and profit $1.2 million.
The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it unsealed charges against Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo, accusing him of accessing unreleased internal information at Google and placing 25 bets worth $2.7 million on markets related to the most searched individuals on Google in 2025.
Prosecutors said Spagnuolo owned the Polymarket account “AlphaRaccoon”, which profited $1.2 million on “outcomes that the market treated as unlikely” when Google published information on the most searched individuals in December.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a twin complaint against Spagnuolo on Wednesday, making similar allegations of insider trading.
Prediction markets are facing growing scrutiny over insider trading, with Congress launching a probe into Polymarket and Kalshi on Friday, questioning the companies’ response to incidents of insider trading on the platform, with lawmakers concerned that government officials are using insider knowledge to make bets.
Manhattan US District Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement that the charges “reinforce a decades-old message: Corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets.”
Source: US Attorney Southern District of New York
AlphaRaccoon account allegedly changed name
According to the court documents, communities on Discord and X started discussing the possibility that AlphaRaccoon was a Google insider in December. Soon after, the username was allegedly changed to a wallet address.
Prosecutors alleged that the funds in the AlphaRaccoon account were also sent to a decentralized crypto swapping service and to an unnamed transfer service that offers privacy protection for blockchain transactions
The Justice Department charged Spagnuolo with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, and could face a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.
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In its complaint, the CFTC seeks restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties and trading and registration bans.
CFTC Director of Enforcement David Miller said in a statement that “the division is a cop on the beat in policing the illegal use of inside information in the prediction markets and other markets within the CFTC’s jurisdiction.”
Source: CFTC
“We will continue to take action to protect markets from insider trading and other forms of fraud, abuse and manipulation,” Miller added.
It comes after the Justice Department charged a US soldier in April with using classified information to place bets on the US capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
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