News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
US charges Google engineer with insider trading on Polymarket
NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has charged a Google software engineer with using insider information to rig bets tied to Google's most-searched list on prediction market Polymarket, earning $1.2 million in profits, according to a complaint unsealed on Wednesday. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen, allegedly used insider information to bet on long-shot candidates like indie pop musician D4vd, who appeared on Google's most-searched list after he was arrested and accused of murdering a teenage girl, according to the complaint. D4vd was the most-searched person of the year, according to Google statistics that were released on December 4, and Spagnuolo allegedly used insider information when betting on November 27 that D4vd would top the list. The bet was particularly profitable, because the markets placed a "near-zero probability" that D4vd would be the most-searched person on Google, according to the complaint. Spagnuolo, on an account called "AlphaRaccoon," also used insider information when placing other bets based on Google's most-searched list, according to the complaint. He made a bet in October that rapper Kendrick Lamar would top the list, at a time when Google's internal data showed that Lamar was on track to be the most-searched person of the year. Reuters could not immediately identify an attorney for Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo lives in Switzerland, according to the complaint, filed in the federal court in Manhattan. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement that prosecutors will pursue corporate insiders who seek to use confidential business information to turn a profit in prediction markets. "Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted," Clayton said. Google said in a statement that it is working with law enforcement and that using confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of company policy. Spagnuolo has been placed on leave, according to a Google spokesperson. Federal prosecutors in April charged a U.S. Army soldier with using classified information to place Polymarket bets on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. (Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Sonali Paul)
Google engineer allegedly had a cheat code for Polymarket and turned it into $1.2M
The case is the second major insider trading arrest tied to Polymarket in 2026, following a US Army soldier charged with betting on a military raid he helped plan. Federal prosecutors have charged a Google software engineer in a case involving alleged insider-style trading on the blockchain prediction platform Polymarket. According to federal prosecutors, 36-year-old Michele Spagnuolo knew the results months before anyone else. He was arrested on May 27, 2026. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York released a criminal complaint that charges him with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Google holds an annual "Year in Search" campaign, where it reveals the most-searched people, events, and topics, and people usually bet on the results before they come out. What is Polymarket, and how does someone make money on it? Polymarket is an online prediction market where people bet on the occurrence of real-world events. It uses a simple yes-or-no system in which each "YES" and each "NO" is priced between 0 and 1 dollar. The price changes depending on what other traders think the odds are. For example, if there is a 90% chance that Donald Trump will NOT be the top-searched person, then the "NO" share for Trump trades around 90 cents. That means if Trump is indeed not the top result, and you had bought that share, you would make 10 cents per share, as each share pays out a full dollar. It is a guessing game for many traders because the system relies on assumptions, but Spagnuolo allegedly already knew the answer. What is Google's Year in Search, and why are the results hidden? The "Year in Search" is a list of the people, events, topics, and questions that trended most on Google's search engine during that year. The company has released the list since at least the early 2000s. According to the criminal complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz, the campaign has many benefits for Google. It drives millions of people to Google's platforms and generates significant media coverage for the organization. It also reinforces Google's status as the "authoritative barometer of public interest and cultural trends," and gives Google a high-profile showcase to demonstrate its reach to advertisers. Google keeps the results a secret, even to most of its employees. If the results leaked early, the media buzz would disappear, advertisers would lose interest in the launch moment, and the entire marketing campaign would be undercut. Google treats this information as highly confidential and restricts the data to a small number of employees. Spagnuolo has access to the data. Which bets did Spagnuolo make? Polymarket opened two markets for the 2025 Year in Search on October 14 and 20. The first market listed about 24 people and asked which of them would be the most-searched person on Google for 2025. The second market asked whether those same people would be in the top five. The payout depended on the results that Google would publish on the Year in Search website. Spagnuolo allegedly accessed Google's internal Year in Search tool and used an anonymous account named AlphaRaccoon to place a $403 on Kendrick Lamar as the top-searched person. The odds for that were 3%, and Google's internal Year in Search tool already has Lamar's name. He also bet $10,807 that Pope Leo XIV would NOT be number one, just as the list indicated. The market gave Pope Leo XIV a 50/50 chance. Spagnuolo checked the internal tool again on November 27 and saw that a musician named d4vd had replaced Kendrick Lamar as the number-one trending person for 2025. He AlphaRaccoon bet $381.12 that d4vd would be in Google's top 5, with a market outcome of only 18% because most traders had no idea who d4vd was in the first place. The Italian also bet $5 bet that d4vd would be the single top-searched person. The market assigned a near-zero probability to that outcome, so it was basically free money for him. But the biggest bets were $937,688 that Bianca Censori, $613,587 that Pope Leo XIV, and $509,149 that Donald Trump would NOT be number one. He also added $171,612 that Donald Trump would NOT be in the top five. AlphaRaccoon risked about $2.75 million on about 25 outcome bets. Google published the results on December 4, and d4vd, Kendrick Lamar, Jimmy Kimmel, Tyler Robinson, and Pope Leo XIV made the Global Top 5. How did the FBI find Spagnuolo? Spagnuolo tried to hide all traces of the money by converting his winnings into different cryptocurrencies and running them through a service designed to erase transaction history on the public blockchain. However, the FBI traced each address and found that the same wallet belonging to AlphaRaccoon was responsible for these transactions. Here is what the US criminal complaint, Southern District of New York, stated in May 2026, "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data." How did Google respond? A spokesperson at Google published a statement after Spagnuolo's arrest and said, "We're working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. We've placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action." However, the statement contradicts the complaint. Google says the tool was available to all employees, but the criminal complaint states that Year in Search data is restricted "to only a limited number of employees" even within the company. This is the second major insider-trading incident connected to Polymarket in 2026, which is putting serious pressure on the market regarding this kind of abuse.
Texas AG Sues Discord For Deceiving Parents, Endangering Children
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against communications app Discord, alleging that the platform allows child predators to exploit children while falsely claiming child safety to parents. "Discord presents itself to the world as a platform built on community, connection, and safety. It is not," the lawsuit, filed on May 22 in the District Court of Collin County, Texas, said. "Behind the safety pages and transparency pages, Discord built and maintains one of the internet's most efficient hunting grounds for manipulation, grooming, and predatory behavior towards children. Discord did so knowingly, deliberately, and profitably." The design choices implemented on the communications platform make it easy for bad actors to locate vulnerable users, build trust quickly, and operate away from public view, the complaint said. According to a Discord webpage, safety is at the "core of everything" the company does. In another post, the company claims safety considerations are "fully integrated into our design process." Discord also says that it has a "zero-tolerance policy" against individuals who engage in sexual grooming or exploitation of minors. Such promises made to consumers, parents, and regulators were false, the lawsuit alleges. Discord makes safety an "opt-in rather than default," the complaint states. "It chose to leave private servers invisible. It chose to staff its most critical safety function with unpaid volunteers. It chose to expire violations after 90 days. It chose to bury the block button. Discord chose profits and growth over the safety of children," it states. A 45-year-old can create a Discord account as a 13-year-old, and the platform has no reliable mechanism to detect or prevent such actions, according to the lawsuit. While Discord allows channels to be age-restricted if a moderator wishes, this protection depends entirely on the self-reported birthdate entered when a user creates an account. The platform basically created an age-verification system "that a child can defeat in seconds," the complaint said. The lawsuit highlights multiple cases of minors being harmed by predators on Discord, including a 13-year-old boy who committed suicide in 2022 after being targeted by the 764 extremist network on the platform. In another case, a 15-year-old boy committed suicide after he was groomed by a predator on Discord and Roblox to send sexually explicit images and videos, according to the lawsuit. The complaint noted that Discord has made it into the "Dirty Dozen" list set up by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation for five straight years. "Sexual abusers return to Discord again and again, thanks to this company's reputation for lax rule enforcement and dangerous design," the center said. "Even registered sex offenders have been charged for targeting kids on Discord." The lawsuit asks the court to declare Discord's actions as "unlawful, deceptive, misleading, and unfair" and order the company to implement age verification requirements. In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, a Discord spokesperson said the lawsuit's "characterization of Discord does not reflect the platform we have built or the investments we have made in user safety." According to the spokesperson, unlike social media platforms, Discord does not have any algorithmic feeds, infinite scroll, or public "likes" that push content to mass audiences. "Our safety systems combine advanced technology and human-led investigations, alongside user reports to help identify accounts or spaces engaged in harmful activity, including sharing exploitative and child sexual abuse materials," the spokesperson said. "We provide teen users and their parents and guardians with important privacy and safety tools, including Teen Safety Assist and our Family Center. We look forward to collaborating with policymakers in working toward a safer online experience for all users on Discord and across the internet." On Feb. 9, Discord announced it planned to roll out teen safety features globally to ensure a "safer and more inclusive experience" for users aged 13 and older. This involves an "age assurance process" in which users must submit identification or agree to use facial age estimation technology. However, only in a minority of cases will age assurance be required, according to Discord. As part of the update, users will have "teen-appropriate experience, with updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering that preserves the privacy and meaningful connections that define Discord," the company said. The updates were scheduled to take effect in March. But on Feb. 24, Discord said that the rollout had been extended to the second half of this year. Meanwhile, Discord was one of the companies targeted by a recent letter from Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson, who asked the platform to comply with the Take It Down Act by May 19. The Act requires platforms to set up a process that enables individuals, including children, to request the removal of intimate photos or videos shared without their consent. Platforms must make it easy for victims to submit such removal requests. The FTC warned that it would "vigorously" enforce the Act, with each violation potentially resulting in civil penalties of $53,088.
Google engineer charged with insider trading after making $1.2M on Polymarket | TechCrunch
The U.S. Justice Department charged Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo with insider trading, alleging the employee made $1.2 million trading on Polymarket based on confidential business information. Spagnuolo, who used the name "AlphaRaccoon" on Polymarket, has worked at Google for over 12 years, according to information on LinkedIn. "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," Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a press release. "Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted." Prediction markets like Polymarket, Kalshi, and others allow users to bet on pretty much anything. Insider trading is not allowed on these platforms because it's illegal, but some users still commit the offense. The Justice Department recently charged a U.S. Army soldier for allegedly using his insider knowledge of the U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to make $400,000 on Polymarket. According to the complaint, Spagnuolo risked over $2.7 million on wagers related to Google's 2025 Year in Search, a marketing campaign in which Google reveals the world's most popular searches of the year. Spagnuolo allegedly accessed confidential, internal Google Search data about the most-searched celebrities to inform his bets. "Polymarket worked closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the CFTC, and is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States," a Polymarket spokesperson told TechCrunch. "Blockchain trading is transparent, traceable, and bad actors leave footprints. We are committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets as well as enforcing our rules and working with our regulators and law enforcement." A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch the company is working with law enforcement on its investigation. "The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies," Google said in an emailed statement, "We've placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action."
SpaceX's Starship rockets are grounded pending investigation after test flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- SpaceX Starship launches are on hold pending an investigation into last week's test flight. The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that the hourlong spaceflight resulted in a mishap based on the performance of the mega rocket's first-stage booster. Minutes after Starship blasted off from Texas on Friday, the booster separated as normal but engines conked out as it made its way back to Earth. Instead of a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, the booster came in hard. There were no reports of injury or property damage, according to the FAA, which will oversee the company's investigation. The spacecraft continued around the world, releasing 20 mock satellites before ending the mission as planned with a fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's biggest and most powerful Starship yet, designed to carry crews to Mars. NASA is looking for it to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2028 and help build a lunar base.
NY federal prosecutors charge Google engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits on Polymarket | CNN Politics
* Federal prosecutors have charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million by using insider information to bet on Polymarket. * The software engineer allegedly accessed confidential Google data about the most searched people of 2025 before placing bets on the prediction market. * Google said the software engineer has been placed on leave, and a lawyer for the man was not immediately identified on the court docket. AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor. Federal prosecutors in New York charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits from bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket by using confidential insider information he learned about the most searched people of 2025. Michele Spagnuolo, the Google software engineer, allegedly used an account called "AlphaRaccoon" to place multiple "yes" and "no" bets related to who would be the most searched person on Google, according to a criminal complaint. "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," authorities allege in the complaint. Spagnuolo is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He appeared in court Wednesday and was released on a $2.2 million bond with travel restrictions. Google said Spagunolo has been placed on leave. A lawyer for Spagunolo was not immediately identified on the court docket. "We're working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies," a Google spokesperson told CNN. Spagnuolo is now the second person this year to face criminal charges alleging insider trading on prediction markets. Last month the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York announced insider trading charges against a US special forces soldier for allegedly using his knowledge of the planned military capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket ahead of it. The solider allegedly made over $400,000 in profits. He has pleaded not guilty. Authorities allege Spagnuolo used confidential internal Google data to place numerous bets about the most searched person. In one case, Spagnuolo placed a $381.12 bet "yes" that d4vd would rank in the most searched people of the year and $5 that d4vd would be the number one searched person on Google with an implied probability of "slightly higher than 0%," according to the complaint. Spagnuolo also bet $613,000 "no" that Pope Leo would be the most searched person and just over $500,000 that Donald Trump would not be the most searched person. When Google announced the most searched results, authorities allege, Spagnuolo made over $1.2 million in profits. CNN has a partnership with another prediction market, Kalshi, and uses its data to cover major events. Editorial employees are prohibited from participating in prediction markets.
《日出而作》據報華爾街基金套現待SpaceX上市，聯儲理事提加息可能
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SpaceX's Starship rockets grounded pending investigation after test flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- SpaceX Starship launches are on hold pending an investigation into last week's test flight. The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that the hourlong spaceflight resulted in a mishap based on the performance of the mega rocket's first-stage booster. Minutes after Starship blasted off from Texas on Friday, the booster separated as normal but engines conked out as it made its way back to Earth. Instead of a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, the booster came in hard. There were no reports of injury or property damage, according to the FAA, which will oversee the company's investigation. The spacecraft continued around the world, releasing 20 mock satellites before ending the mission as planned with a fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's biggest and most powerful Starship yet, designed to carry crews to Mars. NASA is looking for it to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2028 and help build a lunar base. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
With Anthropic, Do Investors Own What They Think They Own?
Investors have spent the last two years trying to buy any piece of Anthropic they could find. Now some are discovering that exposure to one of Silicon Valley's hottest private companies may come with far less control, transparency, or enforceable ownership than they assumed. Anthropic's decision Monday to crack down on secondary-market transactions rattled private investors, hit publicly-traded funds tied to the company, and raised an uncomfortable question: do some investors actually own what they thought they owned? It also highlighted a bigger issue as Anthropic moves toward an anticipated IPO: the company increasingly operates less like a conventional business and more like a mission-driven institution exercising unusual control over ownership, market access, and deployment of its technology. People who work for start-ups receive most of their compensation in the form of stock, and are in essence buying the equivalent of a lottery ticket in their choice of employer. For those who are working for Anthropic, it's become clear that their ticket has paid off, and many of those would like to cash in at least a portion of their holdings: Besides wanting to enjoy some of their newfound gains, they would like to diversify their wealth in case Anthropic's vertiginous increase in valuation were to reverse. The company was valued at roughly $380 billion in February and is pursuing additional financing that could push its valuation north of $900 billion. However, Anthropic has severely constrained the ability of their workers to sell any of their holdings, as it could reduce the price the firm gets from its next round of financing. To that end, it recently moved to restrict secondary-market share transactions tied to the company, warning that some offerings being marketed through investment vehicles and brokers could be considered unauthorized. The move spooked investors who had purchased exposure through special-purpose vehicles, or SPVs, and triggered sharp declines in publicly-traded funds touting indirect Anthropic ownership. Investors were suddenly forced to confront a basic but uncomfortable question: what exactly did they own? Some of the vehicles offering Anthropic exposure were, in fact, merely well-disguised bets on the company's valuation increasing rather than bona fide ownership of transferable shares themselves. At least some investors on secondary platforms may have purchased interests with little enforceable connection to Anthropic at all. Public investors usually expect to know what they own and what rights come with it. Anthropic's model is murkier: Its Long-Term Benefit Trust gives management unusually broad control, while the company has signaled its strong desire to exercise substantial control over how exposure to its shares is structured and recognized. Anthropic's posture toward the Pentagon is another example of the company asserting mission-based control even when that may complicate major commercial relationships. Last week, Anthropic and the Pentagon faced off in a federal appeals court after the Defense Department designated the company a supply-chain risk. The dispute emerged after Anthropic resisted granting the government unrestricted access to its Claude models for military applications, raising concerns within the Defense Department that the company could constrain operational deployment decisions. The dispute introduced some uncertainty as to the firm's long-term relationship with what would be its deepest-pocketed customer by far. Anthropic increasingly presents itself as a quasi-regulatory actor in artificial intelligence, seeking influence over how the technology is deployed and governed. In some respects, that positioning has strengthened the company's reputation among policymakers, regulators, and parts of the technology sector. But it also creates tension with the expectations public investors generally impose on firms. Anthropic may be able to control secondary sales, limit deployment, and preserve its mission while it remains private, but public markets are less forgiving. Investors buying into a trillion-dollar story will eventually demand the rights, transparency, and accountability that normally come with such a valuable asset.
Massive News for SpaceX Investors!
Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue " *Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of May 25, 2026. The video was published on May 27, 2026. Before you buy stock in Invesco QQQ Trust, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and Invesco QQQ Trust wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $472,852!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,317,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 984% -- a market-crushing outperformance compared to 210% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
The SpaceX IPO Prospectus: The Good, The Bad, The Verdict
In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, Motley Fool contributors Tyler Crowe, Matt Frankel, and Jon Quast discuss: To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue " Before you buy stock in Voyager Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and Voyager Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $472,852!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,317,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 984% -- a market-crushing outperformance compared to 210% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. Tyler Crowe: It's SpaceX's S-1 day on Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. I'm your host, Tyler Crowe, and today I'm joined by longtime contributors Matt Frankel and Jon Quast. Guys, we picked one heck of a day to record here because I'm looking across the news. Walmart's down 7% on tepid guidance. Other consumer retailers are way down. Quantum computing companies are up like 20% on a deal with the government for equity deals and things like that. Nvidia had their earnings. But we're not even going to talk about any of those things today because you know what? Earnings, they come and go. But an S-1, as big as SpaceX, only comes around once in a while, so we're going to do a deep dive into SpaceX's S-1 today, and we're going to do the whole show on it. We're going to start with what we liked about it in the first section. We'll call it the good. In the second part, we'll go to poke some holes into some of the things that we didn't like. Based on what we were talking about before the show, there's a few things that we're not big fans of, and then at the end we're going to give our verdicts on whether or not we're going to be buying this IPO, whether we may be waiting, or if any of us are just like, No, thank you. Obviously the job today was before we went on, it's just basically comb through the S-1, see what you see, see what you like. Jon, I think we all came to the consensus. There's plenty of things to like and not like, but what stood out to you most is like, hey, this is good. I really like this. Jon Quast: There are multiple parts to SpaceX's business, but the best-looking one to me was Starlink. Starlink is both profitable and it's growing like crazy, so check this out. This is the satellite business that allows Internet connectivity around the world. Even in remote places, that's the appeal of it. But in the first quarter, its subscriber count more than doubled. It now has more than 10 million subscribers to Starlink. Now, average revenue per user did drop in the first quarter, and it fell pretty significantly. That would ordinarily be troubling to me. But it's added these lower price points. It's expanded into international markets where the monetization isn't as high. The net result has been this robust subscriber growth, and that is really important. More than that, it's also been able to grow that revenue profitably even at the lower monetization rates. Subscribers more than double, as I said, revenue up 32% year over year, that's a really good growth rate. Then it delivered a segment operating margin. I'm just talking Starlink. We're backing out the other parts of the business. The Starlink operating margin was 36%. Now, if this was a standalone business, you would look at that. You'd see subscribers more than doubling, revenue up more than 30%, operating margin approaching 40%, that would be a business that I'd be very interested in owning because that is great growth, great profitability, and fantastic adoption pointing to long-term trajectory. I would love that. Tyler Crowe: I'm going to jump in with an anecdote here because the eyes may not know. I lived in Africa for like six years, and I did. I signed up to be a Starlink customer in 2019, and I think six months ago is when I actually got the email. It was, hey, we're now available. Where are you living? I've moved since then, and I was like, not as much helpful today. But I feel like when I got that email like six months ago, I think my haunches should have been up like, man, if they're emailing me about this, this must mean there's like an IPO or something is coming because they want to grow. Matt Frankel: Jon's right that Starlink is the shining star of this business, at least so far. It's actually the fastest-growing telecom company of its size and history. Starlink has 75% of all active maneuverable satellites on Earth. It's a big competitive advantage. $4.4 billion in operating income last year, it's a legit business. Beyond Starlink, you really need to read a little bit between the lines for some of the good points, at least when it comes to things that don't have to do with things that the company's going to do in ten years, 20 years, like building a colony on Mars. The space business has a massive market share. That's one. 80% of the mass delivered to orbit globally comes from SpaceX. Capex actually seems reasonable to me, you guys might disagree. It's at a roughly $40 billion annual run rate, and that includes AI spend, that includes the space spending, that includes Starlink infrastructure. That actually gives it the lowest capex rate of any trillion-dollar tech company in the world. We'll discuss the company's total addressable market claims when we're not in the what's good segment of this podcast. But just looking at Starlink, the Starlink has an estimated $1.6 trillion market opportunity, and that's a market that already exists today. It could become a much larger business from here. Tyler Crowe: Yes, $1.6 trillion market opportunity, I think globally spend on telecommunications was 1.5. Maybe I'm teasing what we'll get into in the next section, but that does seem like a pretty ambitious target here, but I don't actually won't even talk about Starlink because we covered it a little bit here, and it wasn't actually the thing that stood out to me the most. It's a nice business as you said, it's growing. I think competition's coming. Amazon bought Globalstar. It's been launching its own satellites. It's trying to compete in this regard, as well, so that's something to consider with Starlink. I'm actually more impressed with the launch business than I thought I would have. I know there's been stories about the launch business on borderline profitability. They've been trying to get Starship off the ground, it's heavy lift rocket, and I think it's done like 11 tests. Wouldn't you know, they're actually scheduled for their 12th test flight, I think, later today. I'm sure that's a little bit of a cherry on top for the S-1 to have a successful Starship launch, fingers crossed with all that. Aside from this mammoth amount of money they've been putting into Starship in the past, I want to say a year, year and a half for development that business is pretty more or less profitable. You saw this very large ramp in R&D spending specifically to Starship in this most recent quarter, most recent year. Aside from that, just using Falcon Heavy Falcon nine launches, it does appear to be profitable from bringing in outside customers. It's not like amazing margins, but it's something, which goes a long way in the space industry because this was an industry that was dominated by one company, United Launch Alliance 15, 20 years ago, and now for fractions of the cost, we're actually eking out alpha national profits on this. Now, that revenue has slowed down, and I'm not going to try to hand-wave that away, and I would like to see why in the coming quarters. I would like to know whether that was some pricing competition because Rocket Lab is starting to do launches, Ariane 6, which is the European Ariane Group. Their European Space Agency they're launching for Amazon this year as well as starting to see some other companies going into Blue Origin, as well. Maybe it's pricing competition, maybe it was SpaceX deliberately putting more of their own satellites into orbit on its rockets that was a higher cost burden that brought down the profitability. There's a little bit of balance here. I'd like to see where that goes, but overall, I was more impressed with the launch business than I thought I was going to be. I think we're two out of three here because we've got launch, we've got satellite communications, and then we've got this great big AI box. I don't think it's a surprise that none of us have talked about that segment because I think when we get to the what we're not huge fans of that's going to come up next. 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Tyler Crowe: As we said, we're going to go into the nitty-gritty of the SpaceX S-1 here and probably get to some of the stuff that when looking up and down the S-1, there's gonna be some things that we love and some things that we don't like. Clearly, there are some things in this that aren't the best. I can't say that every single part of this thing was a glowing recommendation as to why SpaceX was something people would want to buy at the beginning. With that in mind, let's just go around the horn again. Jon, what was your ego? What was the thing you read there and let's go that's of gross. Jon Quast: SpaceX is headquartered in Texas, and I will quote the great band, Alabama. If you're going to play in Texas, you've got to have a fiddle in the band. SpaceX has two fiddles in its band, and space is playing second fiddle to AI now. You expect a company such as SpaceX to be 100% space. It is a small part of the vision of the company at this point, and I'm not just blowing smoke. I need to consider these numbers. Matt pointed out how reasonable the capex number was for this company. It's extremely reasonable when you take out AI, 76% of first quarter capital expenditures was AI related, not space related. That's not an insignificant number. The company has a deal in place with Anthropic now. This is hot off the press. Anthropic will be paying SpaceX $1.25 billion a month. That translates to $15 billion annually. Now, that's great. I love revenue. But consider that if this deal had been in place last year, it would have accounted for 45% of the company's revenue. This is a huge deal. It's a huge part of the business moving forward for SpaceX. You look at the total addressable market. SpaceX waving its hands in the air, saying, we've got the largest total addressable market in history. 80% of this $28.5 trillion market, 80% is enterprise AI. That is very interesting. The company is also looking to acquire Cursor for $60 billion. That acquisition could eat up all of the IPO proceeds, and the IPO proceeds are set to break all the records. You look on top of this. It wants to build out Terafab. That could be a $55 billion initial investment, so for some, this might not be gross. This might not be like undesirable. Maybe our listeners are actually celebrating this pivot, this emphasis, this vision that it has for AI. I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that. It is very surprising, though, that a space company is focusing so hard, and I think that listeners need to understand if you're investing for the rockets, if you're investing for Starlink that is waning in significance in the eyes and vision of management from here. Matt Frankel: Jon hit the nail on the head with all the different things you're doing with AI, but the biggest concern is based on a $2 trillion valuation. You're paying more than 100 times sales for a company that lost $5 billion last year. About 300 times trailing EBITA. Growth is impressive, but not to the point of justifying that type of valuation all by itself. The valuation is clearly based on things that Elon Musk thinks he can do over the long-term like space-based data centers, which is part of that $28.5 trillion figure Jon just mentioned. There's also that risk mentioning Elon Musk that you're betting on his future vision. He's not only completely in control, he's also in charge of Tesla. He's also in charge of Neuralink. He's also in charge of the Boeing company. That's still a thing. There's a lot of things that occupy his time and attention, and that is a risk, especially as this business gets bigger and focuses more on AI and all these other adjacent opportunities at the same time. Tyler Crowe: To your point, for those who are keeping score at home the entire GDP of the United States is $32 trillion, so we have a total addressable market that's 75, 80% of the U.S. GDP. That seems pretty ambitious. It seems like a very global idea that sometimes you start looking at those numbers and go. Wonder where they got that, similar to what I was saying with the Starlink number being roughly equivalent to more than all the revenue spent on telecommunications in 2025. Hey, but that's the point of S-1 is we're trying to be lofty. We're trying to be ambitious here, and things like that I can poke holes into that pretty easy. But as an investor above anything else, this was the thing that got me the most. What I see is a corporate structure and an executive payment structure that and to be harsh here is completely agnostic. Or potentially even working against investor outcomes and shareholder returns outside of Elon Musk. The combination of like this dual class share that they have in a compensation structure that's extremely dilutive to investors. I don't think it really strikes me as a business that wants to work necessarily for its shareholders. I know I'm being pretty controversial here when I say this, but let's start with this market cap goal that is put out there. I think it's like 1 billion shares of Class B shares. Raising market cap doesn't always necessarily mean raising the share price to like we mentioned the cursor deal. That's $60 billion. That's probably going to be issued shares. Perhaps there's some cash issued shares, but that's going to raise market cap and could have zero impact on actual price of the stock. There could be other acquisitions that happen in the future that you pay for with stock that may not affect the price. There are lots of ways that you can increase the market cap of a company and have basically a flat share price, so keep that in mind when you hear market cap-based goals for the executive. At the same time we could say, but if we dilute the company with all these extra shares Elon Musk is going to be diluted, as well. Yes and no because so much of that package is tied to growing that market cap, and his interest would grow as well. At the same time, he has supermajority voting shares. For every share Class B he owns, it's ten votes compared to the one. You could dilute the company by hundreds of billions, potentially even trillions of dollars in shares that would not even seed control of the company away from Musk. You have things like that. You have the colony of 1 million people on Mars. It sounds cool on paper, but what tangible benefits does that give to shareholders in terms of returns? I know they are like we want to invest in the future. We want to invest in ambitious ideas, but we do want to make money on those ideas, and it's not really clear that that's a money making endeavor. Look, I have been saying things like this corporate structure, executive pay, and I bet a bunch of people will say, who cares? Because they believe in Elon Musk, and he'll figure it out. But this structure completely divorces the success that Elon Musk could have with the company versus your success as an investor. Of all the things in the S-1, this one would concern me the most as an individual investor. Now went on a long tangent here. I think I revealed my cards as to what I'll be saying about the verdict with this company. But after the break, we're going to basically give our final conclusions on, do I want to buy this IP or not? We laid out the bullish ideas, what's good, what's nice about the SpaceX S-1, some other things that we don't like. But investing is all about balancing those goods and those bads to meet whether it's worth it or not, so let's after examining everything that we saw in this, what's our verdict? Like I said, I probably showed my cards, but Jon, when you finished with the S-1, what did you say? By now, maybe wait and see later, or no, thanks. I'll pass. Jon Quast: There's exactly a 0% chance that I'm going to buy SpaceX's IPO, I'd say, even in 2026. Now, it might not be for the reasons that you might think. I just complained about the AI, but I'm actually keeping an open mind about that. I'm not saying that that's a deal breaker. In fact, that could really unlock a lot of shareholder value if all of Musk's plans regarding AI come to fruition, so that's not really the issue for me. The issue for me is that IPOs are usually very over hyped, and this is one of the most hyped IPOs if not the most hyped IPO of all time. The chances of it being at a very high valuation, the chance of diminished returns over the medium term, I think they are quite elevated. Now, there are times where a hyped IPO does make a great long-term investment. I think you can look at Google. I think you can look at Facebook back when they were called Google and Facebook at IPO. Those were very hyped and wound up being great long term investment. But SpaceX, I'm just going to avoid it here in the beginning for sure, and I'm keeping an open mind about the AI component. I love space. One stock that I have been looking at here, I'm going to provide listeners with an alternative. Hopefully, it's a hidden alternative, and that is Voyager Technologies VOYG. This is a company that went public about a year ago. It has a lot of customers in the defense industry, and so you look at the rising geopolitical threats that emerge on the battlefield of space. This is why Space Force was created in recent times. A Voyager serves that market with missile detection and things such as that. But the thing that actually intrigues me the most is not the defense angle, but the space station angle. You look at the International Space Station. It's been in operation now for I'm not sure how many years, but it is scheduled for decommissioning in 2030, and Voyager Technologies is looking at its Starlab Space Stations as a potential private alternative to the International Space Station, and so that's a very long-term thesis. It's a very speculative thesis as well. I am really curious about this company and what it is doing. There it is Voyager Technologies. The thing that really does intrigue me here is the backlog jumped 54% in the most recent quarter to 275 million. That's a longer-term indicator. This is only a $2 billion market-cap company, so very small and very underfollowed on Wall Street. There's your Hidden Gem for the day. Tyler Crowe: As I was saying with the launch business, this is a industry that's getting much more crowded by the day. I think it was an industry 15, 20 years ago where it was SpaceX was this up and comer that was trying to take on a monopoly with the Lockheed Martin - Boeing joint United Launch Alliance, and now we have seven or eight companies all entering the fray, and there could be a lot of promising ideas. Like Voyager is one of them. As far as the SpaceX IPO, I think I showed my cards earlier. I'm not that interested in this much at all. I would say this. Here's my caveat. I actually think if Starlink was spun off as a separate entity, I think that's actually the business I would be interested in owning, as it seems to be somewhat less related to everything else. It's just wireless telecom companies, and I think number one, it drives a lot of value it has some growth internationally, and has shown it can generate returns. If that was possible, I think there's some opportunity there. Of course, all the caveats of corporate structure, executive compensation that I was talking about earlier would be included in that. But overall, to your point earlier, Jon, I'm not too interested in this isn't I wouldn't say this isn't really SpaceX anymore to you. I'm not really interested in buying XAI, and really at this point SpaceX seems much more like XAI with a space launch and a satellite business stapled onto the side here. I don't know if I'm going to be looking at AI investments, I can't say that what SpaceX has on offer is the most appealing to me. Matt Frankel: I would take claims about all those market opportunities, like the $28.5 trillion figure that we've heard a couple of times here, with a big grain of salt. To put it mildly, this is going to be a very expensive stock from the get-go. I would not be surprised if it was seriously volatile after the IPO. It's forecast to be a very oversubscribed IPO. There's a lot of hype surrounding it. There's going to be a lot of shares moving all about, and retail investors are getting a big piece of it relative to other IPOs. Historically speaking, seven of the ten largest IPOs in U.S. history underperformed the S&P 500 in their first year, which goes along with what Jon was saying that these tend to be very hyped in a lot of cases, because they're very hyped, they tend to be overvalued at first. I'm personally not a buyer, at least right away. I likely won't own this in the foreseeable future unless the value comes down to something I would consider a little bit more palatable. But having said that, there are some things that could make me reassess. For example, if the Starship success creates a clearer path to profitability in the space business. Or if xAI started to be a serious competitor to OpenAI and Anthropic, which I don't think it's at that level today. This could cause me to take a little bit of a closer look. But even then not likely at a $2 trillion valuation. Tyler Crowe: Considering the hype and considering, like you said, it is an oversubscribed IPO, which means that we're probably going to see some pretty big fireworks when the IPO does happen in June. I would say based on the verdict here, it's pretty lukewarm reception, at least from us. But then again, hey, everyone's here to make their own decisions. If you have thoughts on what we thought about the SpaceX S-1, go ahead and email us [email protected]. That's [email protected]. We'd love to hear what you think, and maybe we'll do a little follow-up. But that is all the time we have for today. Matt, Jon, thanks for sharing your thoughts. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for our guests, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on here. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool Editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. Thanks for producer Bart Shannon and the rest of The Motley Fool team for Jon, Matt, myself, thanks for listening, and we'll chat again soon. Jon Quast has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Matt Frankel, CFP has positions in Amazon. Tyler Crowe has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Boeing, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Rocket Lab, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Doj Charges Google Staffer Over Polymarket Trades Netting $1.2 Million
A Google package technologist has been charged pinch utilizing confidential institution accusation to make $1.2 cardinal connected Polymarket, successful the 2nd known national criminal lawsuit connected to lucrative trades connected a prediction marketplace site. Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian national who lives successful Switzerland, was arrested connected Wednesday and charged pinch commodities fraud, ligament fraud, money laundering and different counts for allegedly placing bets connected hunt trends based connected soul Google information that tracked personification searches. "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the result of these wagers earlier the trading nationalist did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable soul data," according to the federal indictment, which authorities unsealed connected Wednesday. Prosecutors opportunity Spagnuolo, operating nether the username AlphaRaccoon, placed a wager that Google's most-searched personification successful 2025 would beryllium the rapper known arsenic D4vd, conscionable erstwhile about Polymarket traders "assigned near-zero probability" to the singer, who has been charged pinch murder, being the No. 1 most-Googled personification past year. The charging documents opportunity erstwhile Spagnuolo transferred his winnings retired of his cryptocurrency wallet, he removed the sanction AlphaRaccoon from his Polymarket account. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought a abstracted civilian lawsuit against Spagnuolo for allegedly violating commodities law. Spagnuolo did not return a petition for comment. Google said successful a connection that the institution cooperated successful the national government's investigation into Spagnuolo, who has been placed connected leave. "The worker accessed our trading worldly utilizing a instrumentality disposable to each employees, but utilizing specified confidential accusation to spot bets is simply a superior breach of our policies," said Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez. While the laws that use to the prediction marketplace manufacture are little strict than banal marketplace rules, what's commonly understood arsenic "insider trading," aliases abusing non-public confidential accusation for profit, is forbidden nether national law. But successful prediction marketplace forums connected messaging sites specified arsenic Discord, users scour markets for large, different trades and promote others to travel those bets pinch their ain wagers. "AlphaRaccoon has alpha," said 1 personification connected Discord, utilizing the slang term for immoderate accusation that gives you an separator connected prediction markets, pointing to Spagnuolo's ample bets connected the most-Googled personification of the twelvemonth earlier Google had released it. "Check AlphaRaccoon account" said different personification erstwhile asked really they should stake connected the market. Prediction markets sites specified arsenic Kalshi and Polymarket person erupted successful fame successful President Trump's 2nd term, allowing anyone to stake connected institution announcements, geopolitical events, the result of creation auctions, elections and a seemingly endless array of different topics. And arsenic much and much group activity profits successful each facet of modern life, online sleuths person progressively identified wagers that look excessively bully to beryllium true, suspiciously assured long-shot bets that person netted prediction marketplace traders six- aliases seven-figure profits. In 1 specified lawsuit past month, a maestro sergeant pinch the U.S. Army Special Forces was charged pinch using classified information about the seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to rake successful much than $400,000 connected Polymarket. The Spagnuolo indictment was unsealed a time aft President Trump vowed connected Truth Social to let the prediction marketplace manufacture to "thrive" by asserting national regulators' "exclusive authority" complete the arguable betting sites. For months, management officials person been fighting authorities officials successful tribunal complete who should constabulary the prediction marketplace industry. State officials opportunity the platforms are fundamentally gambling operations and should beryllium taxable to authorities gambling rules, whereas the Trump management views Polymarket and Kalshi arsenic offering a type of "futures contract" that falls nether the umbrella of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has historically overseen markets connected things for illustration atom futures, crude lipid and precious metals. Polymarket's about celebrated platform, which is based successful Panama, is technically inaccessible to American users. It was forced to unopen down its U.S. cognition in 2022 arsenic portion of a colony pinch national regulators who said the tract was operating without a trading speech license. Two years later, the FBI raided the flat of the company's founder, Shayne Coplan, arsenic portion of a probe into whether Polymarket was violating that agreement. The Trump management dropped that investigation. Trump officials moreover invited Coplan to the White House for a acme connected cryptocurrency. The president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is an advisor to Polymarket and Kalshi, and a partner successful 1789 Capital, which is simply a awesome investor successful Polymarket.
DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million
A Google software engineer has been charged with using confidential company information to make $1.2 million on Polymarket, in the second known federal criminal case connected to lucrative trades on a prediction market site. Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian citizen who lives in Switzerland, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and other counts for allegedly placing bets on search trends based on internal Google data that tracked user searches. "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," according to the federal indictment, which authorities unsealed on Wednesday. Prosecutors say Spagnuolo, operating under the username AlphaRaccoon, placed a wager that Google's most-searched person in 2025 would be the rapper known as D4vd, just when most Polymarket traders "assigned near-zero probability" to the singer, who has been charged with murder, being the No. 1 most-Googled person last year. The charging documents say once Spagnuolo transferred his winnings out of his cryptocurrency wallet, he removed the name AlphaRaccoon from his Polymarket account. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought a separate civil case against Spagnuolo for allegedly violating commodities law. Spagnuolo did not return a request for comment. Google said in a statement that the company cooperated in the federal government's investigation into Spagnuolo, who has been placed on leave. "The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies," said Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez. Olivia Chalos, Polymarket's chief legal officer, said in a statement that it "is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States," adding that, since users on the site use crypto to trade, it is "transparent, traceable and bad actors leave footprints." While the laws that apply to the prediction market industry are less strict than stock market rules, what's commonly understood as "insider trading," or abusing non-public confidential information for profit, is illegal under federal law. But in prediction market forums on messaging sites such as Discord, users scour markets for large, unusual trades and encourage others to follow those bets with their own wagers. "AlphaRaccoon has alpha," said one user on Discord, using the slang term for any information that gives you an edge on prediction markets, pointing to Spagnuolo's large bets on the most-Googled person of the year before Google had released it. "Check AlphaRaccoon account" said another user when asked how they should bet on the market. Prediction markets sites such as Kalshi and Polymarket have erupted in popularity in President Trump's second term, allowing anyone to bet on company announcements, geopolitical events, the outcome of art auctions, elections and a seemingly endless array of other topics. And as more and more people seek profits in every facet of modern life, online sleuths have increasingly identified wagers that appear too good to be true, suspiciously confident long-shot bets that have netted prediction market traders six- or seven-figure profits. In one such instance last month, a master sergeant with the U.S. Army Special Forces was charged with using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to rake in more than $400,000 on Polymarket. The Spagnuolo indictment was unsealed a day after President Trump vowed on Truth Social to allow the prediction market industry to "thrive" by asserting federal regulators' "exclusive authority" over the controversial betting sites. For months, administration officials have been fighting state officials in court over who should police the prediction market industry. State officials say the platforms are essentially gambling operations and should be subject to state gambling rules, whereas the Trump administration views Polymarket and Kalshi as offering a type of "futures contract" that falls under the umbrella of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has historically overseen markets on things like grain futures, crude oil and precious metals. Polymarket's most popular platform, which is based in Panama, is technically inaccessible to American users. It was forced to shut down its U.S. operation in 2022 as part of a settlement with federal regulators who said the site was operating without a trading exchange license. Two years later, the FBI raided the apartment of the company's founder, Shayne Coplan, as part of a probe into whether Polymarket was violating that agreement. The Trump administration dropped that investigation. Trump officials even invited Coplan to the White House for a summit on cryptocurrency. The president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is an advisor to Polymarket and Kalshi, and a partner in 1789 Capital, which is a major investor in Polymarket.
Google employee charged with fraud after winning $1.2m on Polymarket
A Google employee was charged with fraud wednesday after allegedly winning $1.2m betting on Google trends at gambling site Polymarket. Michele Spagnulo, 36, used insider info and a pseudonym, prosecutors say, to run the table. Arrested in New York, he faces counts of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to a federal criminal complaint [PDF, justice.gov]. ABC News' Aaron Katersky and Katherine Faulders report that he has posted a $2.25m bond. For Michele Spagnuolo, these were sure bets because, as a Google information security engineer, he had access to company data that tracked user searches, according to the complaint, which said Spagnuolo "misappropriated confidential and valuable nonpublic information from his employer and used that information to place a series of Google-related bets on Polymarket, a prediction market platform." Under his account, AlphaRaccoon, the software engineer allegedly laid unlikely bets on esoteric outcomes. Notably, he allegedly knew the most-searched person in 2025, the singer D4vd, to whom Polymarket assigned a "near-zero probability" at the time of the bet. Spagnulo had access to Google's internal data systems revealing this, according to the complaint. After scoring big, the AlphaRaccoon account took steps to conceal its operator, but investigators followed "a total of 16 transfers" between cryptocurrency wallets and swapping services. A payment processor ultimately exposed Spagnolo's identity, according to the complaint. Miki.it is his website. I currently lead the Agent & Web Observability area in the Information Security team, building infrastructure to maintain an inventory of AI agents across Alphabet and making the security properties of terabytes of daily web traffic queryable. This enables large-scale, data-driven security remediations and supports the deployment of modern web security features. I co-authored 'strict-dynamic' in the CSP3 W3 specification, which now protects more than a third of the Internet's HTML traffic against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). Internally, I built Security Signals, a comprehensive system providing security measurability across thousands of Google's web services handling traffic from billions of users, and I'm currently defining a common methodology for holistic product security measurability. All that security work, and he apparently forgot he'd uploaded a scan of his ID card to the payment processor. Yes, he has a TED talk, "How blockchain can revolutionize the web." Here's the Department of Justice's press release: Google Employee Charged With Insider Trading.
US charges Google engineer with insider trading on Polymarket
NEW YORK, May 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has charged a Google software engineer with using insider information to rig bets tied to Google's most-searched list on prediction market Polymarket, earning $1.2 million in profits, according to a complaint unsealed on Wednesday. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen, allegedly used insider information to bet on long-shot candidates like indie pop musician D4vd, who appeared on Google's most-searched list after he was arrested and accused of murdering a teenage girl, according to the complaint. D4vd was the most-searched person of the year, according to Google statistics that were released on December 4, and Spagnuolo allegedly used insider information when betting on November 27 that D4vd would top the list. The bet was particularly profitable, because the markets placed a "near-zero probability" that D4vd would be the most-searched person on Google, according to the complaint. Spagnuolo, on an account called "AlphaRaccoon," also used insider information when placing other bets based on Google's most-searched list, according to the complaint. He made a bet in October that rapper Kendrick Lamar would top the list, at a time when Google's internal data showed that Lamar was on track to be the most-searched person of the year. Reuters could not immediately identify an attorney for Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo lives in Switzerland, according to the complaint, filed in the federal court in Manhattan. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement that prosecutors will pursue corporate insiders who seek to use confidential business information to turn a profit in prediction markets. "Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted," Clayton said. Google said in a statement that it is working with law enforcement and that using confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of company policy. Spagnuolo has been placed on leave, according to a Google spokesperson. Federal prosecutors in April charged a U.S. Army soldier with using classified information to place Polymarket bets on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. (Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Sonali Paul)
DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million
Updated May 27, 2026 at 7:03 PM CDT A Google software engineer has been charged with using confidential company information to make $1.2 million on Polymarket, in the second known federal criminal case connected to lucrative trades on a prediction market site. Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian citizen who lives in Switzerland, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and other counts for allegedly placing bets on search trends based on internal Google data that tracked user searches. "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," according to the federal indictment, which authorities unsealed on Wednesday. Prosecutors say Spagnuolo, operating under the username AlphaRaccoon, placed a wager that Google's most-searched person in 2025 would be the rapper known as D4vd, just when most Polymarket traders "assigned near-zero probability" to the singer, who has been charged with murder, being the No. 1 most-Googled person last year. The charging documents say once Spagnuolo transferred his winnings out of his cryptocurrency wallet, he removed the name AlphaRaccoon from his Polymarket account. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought a separate civil case against Spagnuolo for allegedly violating commodities law. Spagnuolo did not return a request for comment. Google said in a statement that the company cooperated in the federal government's investigation into Spagnuolo, who has been placed on leave. "The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies," said Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez. Olivia Chalos, Polymarket's chief legal officer, said in a statement that it "is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States," adding that, since users on the site use crypto to trade, it is "transparent, traceable and bad actors leave footprints." While the laws that apply to the prediction market industry are less strict than stock market rules, what's commonly understood as "insider trading," or abusing non-public confidential information for profit, is illegal under federal law. But in prediction market forums on messaging sites such as Discord, users scour markets for large, unusual trades and encourage others to follow those bets with their own wagers. "AlphaRaccoon has alpha," said one user on Discord, using the slang term for any information that gives you an edge on prediction markets, pointing to Spagnuolo's large bets on the most-Googled person of the year before Google had released it. "Check AlphaRaccoon account" said another user when asked how they should bet on the market. Prediction markets sites such as Kalshi and Polymarket have erupted in popularity in President Trump's second term, allowing anyone to bet on company announcements, geopolitical events, the outcome of art auctions, elections and a seemingly endless array of other topics. And as more and more people seek profits in every facet of modern life, online sleuths have increasingly identified wagers that appear too good to be true, suspiciously confident long-shot bets that have netted prediction market traders six- or seven-figure profits. In one such instance last month, a master sergeant with the U.S. Army Special Forces was charged with using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to rake in more than $400,000 on Polymarket. The Spagnuolo indictment was unsealed a day after President Trump vowed on Truth Social to allow the prediction market industry to "thrive" by asserting federal regulators' "exclusive authority" over the controversial betting sites. For months, administration officials have been fighting state officials in court over who should police the prediction market industry. State officials say the platforms are essentially gambling operations and should be subject to state gambling rules, whereas the Trump administration views Polymarket and Kalshi as offering a type of "futures contract" that falls under the umbrella of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has historically overseen markets on things like grain futures, crude oil and precious metals. Polymarket's most popular platform, which is based in Panama, is technically inaccessible to American users. It was forced to shut down its U.S. operation in 2022 as part of a settlement with federal regulators who said the site was operating without a trading exchange license. Two years later, the FBI raided the apartment of the company's founder, Shayne Coplan, as part of a probe into whether Polymarket was violating that agreement. The Trump administration dropped that investigation. Trump officials even invited Coplan to the White House for a summit on cryptocurrency. The president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is an advisor to Polymarket and Kalshi, and a partner in 1789 Capital, which is a major investor in Polymarket.
SpaceX ordered to investigate Starship booster mishap
Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered SpaceX to investigate the cause of its Starship booster losing control and crashing into the Gulf of Mexico during a test flight last week, the agency announced Wednesday. Following an assessment of the Starship Flight 12 launch, the FAA determined the launch "resulted in a mishap" and that the failed operation was the result of a mishap involving the Super Heavy booster that flew back to the Gulf of Mexico after stage separation Thursday. The agency added that there were no reports of injuries or damaged property. The FAA said it will oversee the company-led investigation and must approve SpaceX's final report as well as any corrective actions before its spacecraft can launch again. The agency said the mishap investigation is meant to determine the cause of the failure and to ensure similar issues do not pose a risk to public safety in future launches. The Hill reached out to SpaceX for comment. SpaceX's Starship spacecraft is a key part of CEO Elon Musk's plans to expand the company's space travel capabilities and eventually carry humans to Mars. NASA is also tapping into a modified version of Starship for its Artemis lunar missions. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman had cheered SpaceX for its test launch. "Congrats @SpaceX team and @elonmusk on a hell of a V3 Starship launch. One step closer to the Moon ... one step closer to Mars," he posted to social platform X. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NY federal prosecutors charge Google engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits on Polymarket
(CNN) -- Federal prosecutors in New York charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits from bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket by using confidential insider information he learned about the most searched people of 2025. Michele Spagnuolo, the Google software engineer, allegedly used an account called "AlphaRaccoon" to place multiple "yes" and "no" bets related to who would be the most searched person on Google, according to a criminal complaint. "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," authorities allege in the complaint. Spagnuolo is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He appeared in court Wednesday and was released on a $2.2 million bond with travel restrictions. Google said Spagunolo has been placed on leave. A lawyer for Spagunolo was not immediately identified on the court docket. "We're working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies," a Google spokesperson told CNN. Spagnuolo is now the second person this year to face criminal charges alleging insider trading on prediction markets. Last month the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York announced insider trading charges against a US special forces soldier for allegedly using his knowledge of the planned military capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to place bets on Polymarket ahead of it. The solider allegedly made over $400,000 in profits. He has pleaded not guilty. Authorities allege Spagnuolo used confidential internal Google data to place numerous bets about the most searched person. In one case, Spagnuolo placed a $381.12 bet "yes" that d4vd would rank in the most searched people of the year and $5 that d4vd would be the number one searched person on Google with an implied probability of "slightly higher than 0%," according to the complaint. Spagnuolo also bet $613,000 "no" that Pope Leo would be the most searched person and just over $500,000 that Donald Trump would not be the most searched person. When Google announced the most searched results, authorities allege, Spagnuolo made over $1.2 million in profits. CNN has a partnership with another prediction market, Kalshi, and uses its data to cover major events. Editorial employees are prohibited from participating in prediction markets. The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million
A Google software engineer has been charged with using confidential company information to make $1.2 million on Polymarket, in the second known federal criminal case connected to lucrative trades on a prediction market site. Michele Spagnuolo, 36, an Italian citizen who lives in Switzerland, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and other counts for allegedly placing bets on search trends based on internal Google data that tracked user searches. "Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google's confidential, commercially valuable internal data," according to the federal indictment, which authorities unsealed on Wednesday. Prosecutors say Spagnuolo, operating under the username AlphaRaccoon, placed a wager that Google's most-searched person in 2025 would be the rapper known as D4vd, just when most Polymarket traders "assigned near-zero probability" to the singer, who has been charged with murder, being the No. 1 most-Googled person last year. The charging documents say once Spagnuolo transferred his winnings out of his cryptocurrency wallet, he removed the name AlphaRaccoon from his Polymarket account. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought a separate civil case against Spagnuolo for allegedly violating commodities law. Spagnuolo did not return a request for comment. Google said in a statement that the company cooperated in the federal government's investigation into Spagnuolo, who has been placed on leave. "The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies," said Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez. While the laws that apply to the prediction market industry are less strict than stock market rules, what's commonly understood as "insider trading," or abusing non-public confidential information for profit, is illegal under federal law. But in prediction market forums on messaging sites such as Discord, users scour markets for large, unusual trades and encourage others to follow those bets with their own wagers. "AlphaRaccoon has alpha," said one user on Discord, using the slang term for any information that gives you an edge on prediction markets, pointing to Spagnuolo's large bets on the most-Googled person of the year before Google had released it. "Check AlphaRaccoon account" said another user when asked how they should bet on the market. Prediction markets sites such as Kalshi and Polymarket have erupted in popularity in President Trump's second term, allowing anyone to bet on company announcements, geopolitical events, the outcome of art auctions, elections and a seemingly endless array of other topics. And as more and more people seek profits in every facet of modern life, online sleuths have increasingly identified wagers that appear too good to be true, suspiciously confident long-shot bets that have netted prediction market traders six- or seven-figure profits. In one such instance last month, a master sergeant with the U.S. Army Special Forces was charged with using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to rake in more than $400,000 on Polymarket. The Spagnuolo indictment was unsealed a day after President Trump vowed on Truth Social to allow the prediction market industry to "thrive" by asserting federal regulators' "exclusive authority" over the controversial betting sites. For months, administration officials have been fighting state officials in court over who should police the prediction market industry. State officials say the platforms are essentially gambling operations and should be subject to state gambling rules, whereas the Trump administration views Polymarket and Kalshi as offering a type of "futures contract" that falls under the umbrella of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has historically overseen markets on things like grain futures, crude oil and precious metals. Polymarket's most popular platform, which is based in Panama, is technically inaccessible to American users. It was forced to shut down its U.S. operation in 2022 as part of a settlement with federal regulators who said the site was operating without a trading exchange license. Two years later, the FBI raided the apartment of the company's founder, Shayne Coplan, as part of a probe into whether Polymarket was violating that agreement. The Trump administration dropped that investigation. Trump officials even invited Coplan to the White House for a summit on cryptocurrency. The president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is an advisor to Polymarket and Kalshi, and a partner in 1789 Capital, which is a major investor in Polymarket.
SpaceX's Starship rockets grounded pending investigation after test flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- SpaceX Starship launches are on hold pending an investigation into last week's test flight. The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that the hourlong spaceflight resulted in a mishap based on the performance of the mega rocket's first-stage booster. Minutes after Starship blasted off from Texas on Friday, the booster separated as normal but engines conked out as it made its way back to Earth. Instead of a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, the booster came in hard. There were no reports of injury or property damage, according to the FAA, which will oversee the company's investigation. The spacecraft continued around the world, releasing 20 mock satellites before ending the mission as planned with a fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's biggest and most powerful Starship yet, designed to carry crews to Mars. NASA is looking for it to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2028 and help build a lunar base. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
