Prosecutors say confidential Google search data helped Michele Spagnuolo win wagers tied to Year in Search results.
NEW YORK, NY — A Google software engineer was charged in federal court Wednesday with using confidential company search data to win about $1.2 million on Polymarket bets tied to Google’s 2025 Year in Search list, prosecutors said.
Michele Spagnuolo, 36, faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in a criminal complaint unsealed in Manhattan. The case puts new legal pressure on prediction markets, where users trade contracts tied to real-world outcomes. Prosecutors said Spagnuolo used the Polymarket handle AlphaRaccoon to place bets before Google publicly released its annual search rankings on Dec. 4, 2025. Google placed him on leave after the charges became public.
The complaint says Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen who lived in Switzerland, accessed Google’s internal Year in Search data on Oct. 15, 2025, and again on Nov. 27, 2025. Those records were not public and showed which people were leading Google’s search rankings before the company made its official announcement. On Oct. 16, prosecutors said, the AlphaRaccoon account placed about $403 on Kendrick Lamar to be the No. 1 searched person on Google that year, when Google’s internal data showed Lamar was leading. The same account also bet more than $10,000 against Pope Leo XIV being the top searched person. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said insider trading harms market integrity and said prosecutors would pursue cases involving confidential business information used on prediction markets.
The most striking bet came on Nov. 27, when prosecutors said Spagnuolo again looked at confidential Google data. By then, the complaint says, singer D4vd had replaced Kendrick Lamar as Google’s top searched person for 2025. About three hours later, the AlphaRaccoon account wagered about $381 that D4vd would rank in Google’s top five most searched people, with the market pricing that outcome at about 18%. Later the same day, the account wagered about $5 that D4vd would be the No. 1 searched person on Google that year, when the market treated that outcome as near zero. Prosecutors said D4vd later topped the list after public attention rose around a criminal case in which he was arrested and accused of murder. The complaint does not accuse D4vd of any role in Spagnuolo’s alleged betting scheme.
Federal investigators said the AlphaRaccoon account did not rely only on long-shot wagers. The complaint says the account placed large bets on other Year in Search outcomes where more money was available in the market. It wagered about $937,688 against Bianca Censori being the No. 1 searched person, about $613,587 against Pope Leo XIV taking the top spot, about $509,149 against Donald Trump being No. 1 and about $171,612 against Trump ranking in the top five. In all, prosecutors said, the account risked about $2.75 million on roughly 25 Google Year in Search outcomes between Oct. 15 and Dec. 4. After Google announced the results, the account earned about $1.2 million in profits on those bets, according to the complaint.
The case also centers on what prosecutors describe as efforts to hide the winnings. Investigators said Polymarket records, blockchain records and other account data tied Spagnuolo to the AlphaRaccoon account. After the Year in Search markets resolved in early December, the complaint says, millions of USDC.e moved out of the Polymarket account to a crypto wallet. Prosecutors said the funds then moved through swaps and a privacy-focused transfer service meant to make blockchain transactions harder to trace. The complaint also says the AlphaRaccoon username was removed after Discord and X users began discussing the account and speculating that it belonged to a Google insider. Prosecutors said some funds later reached an account at an Italian payment processor opened with Spagnuolo’s government identification.
Google said the data at issue came from marketing material reached through an internal tool available to employees. A Google spokesperson said the company was working with law enforcement and called the use of confidential information for betting a serious breach of company policy. The company said Spagnuolo had been placed on leave and that Google would take appropriate action. Polymarket said it helped law enforcement investigate the trading activity. The company has described itself as a prediction market where users trade on event outcomes, and the case comes as regulators and prosecutors pay closer attention to whether inside information is being used on those platforms.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a related civil complaint against Spagnuolo in the Southern District of New York. The agency said it is seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said the commission would not tolerate fraud, manipulation or insider trading, no matter what technology or platform is used. The civil complaint says Spagnuolo bought “Yes” or “No” shares on at least 23 Year in Search contracts with near-perfect accuracy. The criminal case, filed by federal prosecutors, seeks to prove the fraud and money laundering charges in court.
Spagnuolo was arrested Wednesday morning in New York and appeared briefly before a federal magistrate judge. He did not enter a plea at that appearance. The court released him on a $2.25 million bond, including $1 million in cash security, with $50,000 required to be posted Wednesday. Prosecutors said the case shows that traditional insider trading theories can apply beyond stocks and bonds when confidential business information is used to profit in event contracts. Authorities have not said whether more people will be charged. The complaint says investigators reviewed Polymarket documents, cryptocurrency service records, blockchain activity and public social media posts while building the case.
The charges remain allegations, and Spagnuolo is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The next steps include further court proceedings in Manhattan federal court and the CFTC’s civil case over the same alleged trading. Google’s Year in Search results were released Dec. 4, 2025, and the criminal complaint was unsealed May 27, 2026.
Author note: Last updated May 28, 2026.