US prosecutors charge Google engineer Michele Spagnuolo with using inside information to make $1.2M on Polymarket bets about Google's Year in Search results
Michele Spagnuolo allegedly placed bets on what users were searching for.
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Google Engineer Charged for Using Inside Info on Polymarket Bets
A Google engineer allegedly leveraged internal search data to rake in $1.2M on Polymarket prediction bets.
Federal prosecutors have charged Google engineer Michele Spagnuolo with insider trading on prediction markets. The accusation: Spagnuolo allegedly used privileged access to Google's internal data to place winning bets on Polymarket — specifically wagering on the outcomes of Google's Year in Search results.
The scheme reportedly netted $1.2 million. Spagnuolo allegedly knew what users were searching for before the public reveals, then used that knowledge to cash in on prediction market contracts tied to those results.
It's a novel twist on insider trading — not stocks, but crypto-adjacent prediction markets. The case highlights how prediction platforms like Polymarket are now big enough to attract serious legal scrutiny and, apparently, serious fraud.
The charges mark one of the first major insider trading cases involving a prediction market platform rather than traditional securities.