DOJ Charges Google Employee With $1.2 Million Polymarket Bet On Search Term (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0183433716
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/05/28/060223/doj-charges-google-employee-with-12-million-polymarket-bet-on-search-term
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/27/google-employee-polymarket-insider-trading.html
> Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with fraud on Wednesday, alleging that he [1]made $1.2 million off of bets using insider information on Polymarket . Prosecutors claim that Michele Spagnuolo, a staff information security engineer at Google, used confidential information to place trades correctly betting that singer d4vd would be Google's most searched person in 2025. Spagnuolo has been charged with money laundering, commodities fraud and wire fraud. The complaint, [2]filed in the Southern District of New York , was unsealed on Wednesday.
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> Spagnuolo was arrested Wednesday morning in New York, ABC reported. "Spagnuolo had access to Google's internal data systems, including a particular Google internal software tool that provided him access to confidential, nonpublic Year in Search data," the prosecutors said in their complaint. Some observers of the Polymarket platform flagged the user "AlphaRaccoon" back in December for suspicious trades on the most searched person contracts. The complaint Wednesday said that Spagnuolo was the person behind that account. "Google officially and publicly announced its Year in Search 2025 results on or about December 4, 2025. Soon after it did so, Spagnuolo's AlphaRaccoon account, profited approximately $1.2 million on his Google Year in Search 2025-related bets," the complaint said.
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> [...] Spagnuolo is also facing a civil case from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he's charged with insider trading. The complaint detailed that Spagnuolo correctly predicted the outcomes of a slew of other search markets, including contracts like "Will Zohran Mamdani rank in the Top 5 most searched" and "Will Squid Game be the #1 searched TV show." "Spagnuolo misappropriated the material Confidential Information by knowingly or recklessly using it to trade the 2025 Year in Search List Contracts in breach of his duties of trust and confidentiality," the CFTC complaint alleged.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/27/google-employee-polymarket-insider-trading.html
[2] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/google-employee-charged-insider-trading
Huh ? (Score:4, Insightful)
I always knew there would be a time when I wouldn't know the top famous singer... But a time when I wouldn't have any idea how to pronounce his name, no, I did not expect that. But back on topic, good; but now throw the entire Trump crime family in the slammer for insider traffic too. Why do *they* get a free pass ?!? Or rather a *very* lucrative pass.
What? (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought "criminal" was the new "legal" as far as the DIJ was concerned? Did this person do something to piss off the Dumb?
Got one! (Score:2)
Looks like they caught one of the hundreds of thousands of people that must be doing this same sort of thing. Most of the others just aren't making quite that much money doing it.
Sad state of events (Score:2)
The ctfc should be dismantling gambling markets for the oublic good, not going after idiot gambling cheaters.
Re: (Score:2)
Agree in the first part, dissent in the second. This guy was not an idiot.
This is why gambling is illegal. (Score:2)
But he shouldn't be charged with insider trading. He's not involved in trading securities or commodities; he's cheating other gamblers at a casino. That is illegal in States that allow casinos, but there are no Federal laws banning it. And it may not even be cheating but a legal advantage, like counting cards.
It's gonna be fun (Score:3)
This is only insider trading if these are commodities, and their not. And I have no doubt this guy's lawyers are taking that to the Supreme Court.
The court's pretty corrupt though so it'll be fun to see how it plays out, in a "our civilization is collapsing" kinda way
How about they go after friends of Trump? (Score:5, Insightful)
How much money was "won" by friends of Donald Trump who bet on when Trump would do this or that? How about those who conveniently timed stock trades perfectly with announcements by Trump that would cause the overall stock market to go up or down?
Now, bets on who would be the most searched for...when was the bet placed, just before the information came out, or a year ago where it would require search/advertisement manipulation to have working at Google provide any sort of extra tip information where it would be against the rules?
Re: (Score:1)
Answer non of that matters. Almost all of those laws do not apply to the president, other federal employees, and in some cases legislators yes but the president largely is except for law that would prohibit him from trading based on his knowledge of confidential information.
He IS obligated by his oath of office to act in the interests of the United States, but he can profit from that as far as the law goes mostly.