Google security engineer accused of turning confidential search trends into $1.2M win on Polymarket
Google security engineer accused of turning confidential search trends into $1.2M win on Polymarket
https://cyberscoop.com/google-security-engineer-insider-trading-polymarket/
Publish Date: 2026-05-28 14:17:00
Source Domain: cyberscoop.com
A Google security engineer was arrested in New York and charged with crimes related to bets he allegedly placed on Polymarket using confidential information he pulled from Google systems, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen who lives in Switzerland, is accused of placing multiple trades on the prediction marketplace last year that netted him a profit of more than $1.2 million. He allegedly abused internal access to Google’s nonpublic Year in Search data and placed a series of bets on the most searched people on Google in 2025.
“Today’s charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential information to turn a profit in our markets,” Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement Wednesday. “Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted.”
Spagnuolo was charged with violating the Commodity Exchange Act, wire fraud and money laundering, which carry a combined maximum sentence up to 50 years in prison.
He was also served with a civil complaint by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that accused him of insider trading. The government agency is seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans and a permanent injunction against further regulation violations.
Spagnuolo has been employed as a security engineer at Google since 2014, where he built products, specifications and led multiple projects in the information security unit, according to his company bio, which has since been taken down.
A Google spokesperson said the company is working with law enforcement on its investigation. “The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies,”…
