WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A software engineer at Google, under Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), has been arrested and is facing charges in the U.S. for allegedly using insider info to make profitable bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket.
Federal prosecutors in New York revealed that Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian national residing in Switzerland, leveraged internal Google data to execute trades that earned him about $1.2 million in profit. They claim he placed roughly $2.7 million in bets on Google-related prediction markets from October to December 2025.
Court documents suggest that Spagnuolo accessed confidential marketing and search trend data through internal Google tools meant for employee use, allowing him to make some very successful bets.
One of his most lucrative trades involved accurately guessing who would be the most searched person on Google in 2025. He put his money down on the musician D4vd when the odds were nearly nonexistent, long before the information was released to the public.
The FBI mentioned they traced cryptocurrency betting accounts back to Spagnuolo using ID records linked to his Italian ID card. He was arrested on Wednesday, appeared in front of a federal judge in New York, and was later released on a $2.25 million bond.
Google stated that the employee has been placed on leave and confirmed that they are fully cooperating with law enforcement.
Polymarket also mentioned that they have been working closely with investigators, emphasizing that trading on their blockchain platform is transparent and traceable.
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