Spagnuolo allegedly used privileged Google data to make related Polymarket trades.

The US Department of Justice announced Wednesday that they have charged a Google employee with three felony counts linked to insider trading. According to authorities, Michele Spagnuolo - an Italian citizen living in Switzerland - enjoyed access to confidential Google trends data as part of his role as a software engineer within the company.

After initially opening a Polymarket account in May 2024, Spagnuolo - now 36 years of age - began making Google search-related trades on the exchange in October 2025 under the account name "AlphaRaccoon," says the DOJ. Those trades resulted in a profit exceeding $1.2 million by December 2025, according to the criminal complaint that was unsealed earlier this week.

READ CRIMINAL COMPLAINT: USA v Michele Spagnuolo (unsealed May 27, 2026)

The federal government claims that Spagnuolo, who was presented Wednesday before US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in the Southern District of New York, was aware that the internal information he had access to was confidential. The former Google software engineer "certified his understanding of various Google confidentiality and ethics policies," reads the DOJ statement.

What is Spagnuolo formally charged with?

The unsealed criminal complaint charges the Google software engineer with three felony counts:

COUNT ONE - Commodities Fraud
COUNT TWO - Wire Fraud
COUNT THREE - Money Laundering

"Today's charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets," stated U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in the DOJ press release.

"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. Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted."

Another high profile criminal case against a prediction market trader

The charges against Spagnuolo were unsealed roughly one month after the feds arrested US Army Special Forces master sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke for allegedly using classified intel to illegally profit more than $409,000 on the Polymarket exchange. Van Dyke is accused of using a VPN to trade on Venezuela-based predictions in late 2025, while knowing that he was, and would be, directly participating in corresponding US military actions in the region.

Van Dyke's arrest has been cited by numerous lawmakers and politicians since April. Pennsylvania State Representative Tarik Khan told a local news outlet recently that "we can't have rigged systems" while introducing a legislative proposal that would make insider trading on prediction markets illegal within the Keystone State. The Council on Foreign Relations also reacted to last month's arrest of a US Army soldier, driving home the point that "by the time a national security insider is caught trading, the damage is done."

Due to the alleged amount of fraud and money laundering that took place, the newly unsealed criminal case against Spagnuolo is likely to attract attention from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. "The FBI remains dedicated to searching for fraudsters who betray their employer for personal financial gains," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. on Wednesday.

Google Employee Charged with Insider Trading on Polymarket