Federal prosecutors have charged Michele Spagnuolo, a staff information security engineer at Google, with money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud after he allegedly made $1.2 million from insider trading on the Polymarket platform using confidential Google data [1]. According to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, Spagnuolo accessed Google's internal data systems, specifically a proprietary tool containing nonpublic Year in Search data, to place bets that singer d4vd would be Google's most searched person in 2025 [1]. The complaint was unsealed on May 27, 2026, and Spagnuolo was arrested in New York the same day; he appeared before a federal magistrate judge but did not enter a plea and was released on a $2.25 million bond [1].
Google confirmed that Spagnuolo had accessed marketing material using a tool available to all employees but emphasized that using such confidential information for betting is a serious breach of company policy. The company stated that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave and that it is cooperating with law enforcement, promising to take appropriate action [1].
Polymarket, the prediction platform where the trades occurred, stated that it worked closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on the investigation. Polymarket claims to be the only prediction platform whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States and reiterated its commitment to fair and transparent markets [1].
In addition to the criminal charges, Spagnuolo is facing a civil case from the CFTC, as indicated by federal court filings [1]. This case marks the second high-profile insider trading incident on Polymarket in just over a month, following the April arrest of a U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant on similar charges [1].
CONCLUSION
The charges against Michele Spagnuolo highlight the growing regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets and the use of confidential corporate data for personal gain. Google's swift cooperation with authorities and Polymarket's involvement with regulators underscore the seriousness of the case, which could have significant implications for both corporate data security and the oversight of online betting platforms.