U.S. federal prosecutors and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charge a Google employee, Michele Spagnuolo, with allegedly using confidential, nonpublic internal Google data to place winning bets on the decentralized prediction market Polymarket. Spagnuolo, 36, who has worked at Google since 2014 and is described in filings as an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, is accused of accessing unreleased information from Google’s “Year in Search” feature in 2025 before it was made public. Authorities allege that using that information, Spagnuolo—identified in the materials by the Polymarket account name “AlphaRaccoon”—placed bets related to the most searched individuals on Google for 2025.

Prosecutors say the account profited about $1.2 million and that the wagers were tied to outcomes the market treated as unlikely after the data release. The DOJ charges Spagnuolo with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering; the CFTC files a parallel complaint alleging insider trading violations and seeks remedies including restitution, disgorgement, penalties, and trading and registration bans. Officials say the case underscores limits on corporate insiders using confidential information to profit.