Google information security engineer charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket [View all]

Source: ABC News

Google information security engineer charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket

Michele Spagnuolo allegedly placed bets on what users were searching for.

ByAaron Katersky and Katherine Faulders
May 27, 2026, 4:41 PM

A Google employee fraudulently made more than $1 million by using inside information to place Polymarket bets on what users were searching for on Google, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in New York.

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."

Spagnuolo, 36, is charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

"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," the complaint said.

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Read more: https://abcnews.com/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018