By Curtis Deacon
Publication Date: 2026-06-07 14:35:00
A Google software engineer who allegedly used the handle “AlphaRaccoon” on Polymarket is facing insider trading charges after prosecutors said he turned confidential search data into about $1.2 million in profits.
What happened?
According to the U.S. Justice Department, as first reported by TechCrunch, Michele Spagnuolo — a Google employee who reportedly spent more than 12 years at the company — used nonpublic company information to place winning trades on Polymarket.
The alleged bets were tied to Google’s 2025 “Year in Search” campaign, which spotlights the year’s biggest search trends. TechCrunch reported that prosecutors said he committed more than $2.7 million to those Polymarket positions.
Court filings say the trades were guided by internal Google Search data about which celebrities received the most searches.
Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a press release that “Spagnuolo violated the duties he owed to his employer and…