tech
Google Employee Charged with $1M Polymarket Insider Trading Bet on Search Term
The complaint from the Southern District of New York comes just over a month after another insider trading case on Polymarket.
TL;DR
- Google employee Michele Spagnuolo charged with fraud, money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
- Allegedly made $1.2 million on Polymarket bets using confidential Google 'Year in Search' data.
- Spagnuolo is accused of correctly predicting search trends, including d4vd being the most searched person in 2025.
- The complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York.
- Spagnuolo was arrested and released on a $2.25 million bond.
- Google confirmed the employee accessed marketing material using a tool available to all employees, calling the bets a "serious breach of our policies."
- Spagnuolo is also facing a civil case from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for insider trading.
- This is the second high-profile insider trading case on Polymarket in over a month.