Google Engineer Charged with Using Confidential Data for Polymarket Gains

A Google software engineer has been charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering after allegedly using confidential company data to profit over $1.2 million on Polymarket.

Michele Spagnuolo, based in Switzerland, used an internal tool marked 'Google Confidential' to access non-public search data between October 15 and December 4 last year.

He then placed bets through an account called 'AlphaRaccoon' on the year's most-searched people and items before the data went public, making more than $1.2 million once results were released.