A Google Engineer Used Confidential Search Data to Win $1.2 Million on Polymarket, Feds Say — His Best Bet Involved an Alleged Killer
Michele Spagnuolo allegedly used internal data to bet on accused killer D4vd becoming Google’s most-searched person of 2025.
People use betting sites like Polymarket and Kalshi to wager on everything from the World Cup to election results. But when you work at Google, using the company’s own search data to rig your bets is a serious no-no. That’s the alleged scheme that just landed one engineer in hot water with the Feds.
Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Google security engineer based in Switzerland, was charged Wednesday with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to the New York Post. Prosecutors allege he used internal Google search data to make a series of Polymarket bets between October and December that netted him more than $1.2 million. His most lucrative wager was a $381 bet on accused killer D4vd becoming Google’s most-searched person of 2025. At the time, Polymarket gave D4vd a near-zero probability of winning. Spagnuolo had allegedly accessed Google’s internal data just three hours before placing the bet.
The case is the second criminal insider-trading charge tied to Polymarket. In April, a U.S. soldier was charged with using classified information to win $400,000 betting on the timing of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s capture.
People use betting sites like Polymarket and Kalshi to wager on everything from the World Cup to election results. But when you work at Google, using the company’s own search data to rig your bets is a serious no-no. That’s the alleged scheme that just landed one engineer in hot water with the Feds.
Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Google security engineer based in Switzerland, was charged Wednesday with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to the New York Post. Prosecutors allege he used internal Google search data to make a series of Polymarket bets between October and December that netted him more than $1.2 million. His most lucrative wager was a $381 bet on accused killer D4vd becoming Google’s most-searched person of 2025. At the time, Polymarket gave D4vd a near-zero probability of winning. Spagnuolo had allegedly accessed Google’s internal data just three hours before placing the bet.
The case is the second criminal insider-trading charge tied to Polymarket. In April, a U.S. soldier was charged with using classified information to win $400,000 betting on the timing of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s capture.
