A Google safety engineer has been charged with crimes stemming from allegedly putting trades on Polymarket utilizing confidential inner info from the tech large. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen, was arrested this morning in New York, as first reported by ABC Information.
Spagnuolo is charged with one depend every of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and cash laundering. He has labored at Google since 2014 and was primarily based out of the corporate’s Zurich, Switzerland, places of work.
In accordance with the criticism, Spagnuolo positioned trades on Polymarket from round October 2025 to December 2025 utilizing inner Google information. In a single occasion, he netted $1.2 million buying and selling on who Google’s most-searched particular person of the 12 months can be in 2025, accurately predicting that the winner can be D4vd, a as soon as obscure singer who turned the topic of intense public scrutiny after he was suspected of homicide. (D4vd was finally charged within the case in April.)
“In contrast to the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the result of those wagers earlier than the buying and selling public did as a result of he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially precious inner information,” FBI agent Brandon Racz wrote within the criticism.
That is the second identified arrest in america for illicit exercise on prediction markets. In April, a US Military particular forces officer was arrested for allegedly putting bets on markets associated to the seize of former Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro. Each circumstances have been introduced by the Southern District of New York.
OpenAI fired an employee earlier this 12 months for utilizing insider info to make trades on a prediction platform, however that is the primary time {that a} tech employee has been arrested for his or her alleged exercise.
Polymarket has come under fire from lawmakers for its status as a hub of criminal activity. Final week, Home Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform chairman James Comer launched an investigation into insider buying and selling on prediction markets platforms and requested info from Polymarket about how the corporate vets its prospects. There are two variations of Polymarket: a smaller platform that’s authorized in america and a a lot bigger offshore model that’s technically blocked within the US and the place merchants use cryptocurrency to position their wagers.
“We’re working with legislation enforcement on their investigation. The worker accessed our advertising and marketing materials utilizing a device accessible to all staff, however utilizing such confidential info to position bets is a severe breach of our insurance policies. We’ve positioned the worker on go away and can take the suitable motion,” Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez mentioned in an announcement to WIRED.
“Polymarket labored intently with the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York and [the Commodity Futures Trading Commission], and is the one prediction platform thus far whose cooperation has led to insider buying and selling expenses in america,” Polymarket spokesperson Connor Brandi instructed WIRED. “Blockchain buying and selling is clear, traceable, and unhealthy actors go away footprints. We’re dedicated to sustaining correct, honest, and clear markets in addition to implementing our guidelines and dealing with our regulators and legislation enforcement.” In a social media publish, Polymarket said the arrest was the results of a referral it made to authorities.
Anybody can hint exercise on Polymarket’s crypto-based platform, since all the pockets transactions are public. Spagnuolo allegedly made his trades utilizing an account with the person identify AlphaRaccoon, which Polymarket watchers had lengthy speculated could have belonged to a Google insider, for the reason that odds of accurately predicting the solutions to the questions he wagered on had been so unbelievable.
Earlier this month, Michael Selig, chairman of the CFTC, which is tasked with regulating prediction markets within the US, instructed WIRED that the company is using synthetic intelligence instruments to hunt for market manipulation and insider buying and selling within the business.
