Google Engineer Charged with Insider Trading: $1.2M Made on Polymarket Using Confidential Search Data

In a shocking development that has sent ripples through the tech and financial worlds, a Google software engineer has been arrested and charged with insider trading after allegedly using confidential company information to make over $1.2 million on the prediction market platform Polymarket.

According to the criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors, Michele Spagnuolo, a security engineer at Google, placed bets totaling more than $2.7 million on Polymarket wagers related to Google’s 2025 ‘Year in Search’ campaign. The bets, which centered on predicting which figures and topics would be the most searched globally, were allegedly based on internal, non-public data that Spagnuolo accessed as part of his role at the company.

The case highlights a growing concern about the intersection of insider trading laws and decentralized prediction markets. Unlike traditional stock markets, Polymarket allows users to bet on the outcome of almost any event, from political elections to cultural trends. This case marks one of the first high-profile attempts by the Department of Justice to prosecute insider trading on such platforms.

Spagnuolo, who faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and securities fraud, was arrested at his home in California. Google has fully cooperated with the investigation and has since terminated the engineer’s employment. The company has not commented on whether it will implement new controls to prevent similar incidents in the future.

This case serves as a stark warning to tech employees: playing the prediction markets with confidential data is not just a violation of company policy, but a federal crime with severe consequences.