Google worker charged with using inside information to make $1.2 million on Polymarket
Polymarket trader “AlphaRaccoon” wasn’t just feeling lucky when he took positions related to Google’s year-end top search results late last year, but was instead using confidential data from his position inside the company, according to a criminal complaint filed in New York that was unsealed yesterday.
Michele Spagnuolo, a staff information security engineer at Google Zurich, per his LinkedIn profile, has been charged with money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud, with the account reported to have made $1.2 million across various trades.
The complaint alleges that Spagnuolo used nonpublic information to place trades such as the rapper and alleged murderer D4vd being the No. 1 search on Google in 2025. When it was placed, Polymarket had assigned a “a near-zero probability” to that position.
As we noted late last year, the stakes involved and the volume of activity around this one specific subject aroused suspicion at the time, and the AlphaRaccoon (a username that was then changed to 0xafEe) account page now lies dormant as a key part of one of the first insider trading cases in the prediction market arena.
Michele Spagnuolo, a staff information security engineer at Google Zurich, per his LinkedIn profile, has been charged with money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud, with the account reported to have made $1.2 million across various trades.
The complaint alleges that Spagnuolo used nonpublic information to place trades such as the rapper and alleged murderer D4vd being the No. 1 search on Google in 2025. When it was placed, Polymarket had assigned a “a near-zero probability” to that position.
As we noted late last year, the stakes involved and the volume of activity around this one specific subject aroused suspicion at the time, and the AlphaRaccoon (a username that was then changed to 0xafEe) account page now lies dormant as a key part of one of the first insider trading cases in the prediction market arena.
