A Google staff software engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, has been charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly using confidential Google data to pocket over $1.2 million on the prediction market Polymarket.
Prosecutors say Spagnuolo, who used the alias "AlphaRaccoon," accessed Google's closely guarded "Year in Search" data - internal information revealing the year's top trending searches before the company's public December release.
According to the FBI, between October and December 2025, Spagnuolo repeatedly accessed the confidential data and then, sometimes within hours, placed bets on Polymarket that reflected exactly what he had seen.
On October 15, 2025, Spagnuolo allegedly accessed the internal tool. The next day, AlphaRaccoon wagered approximately $403 on Kendrick Lamar being the number one searched person, and roughly $10,807 against Pope Leo XIV taking the top spot.
What made the scheme particularly profitable: Spagnuolo bet heavily against crowd favorites, knowing which celebrities would not top the rankings. AlphaRaccoon wagered $937,688 against Bianca Censori, $613,587 against Pope Leo XIV, and $509,149 against Donald Trump.
When Google published its results on December 4, 2025, the account walked away with approximately $1.2 million in profit. After the markets resolved, about $3.9 million in USDC.e was released to the AlphaRaccoon account. On December 10, the account transferred roughly $5 million to a linked cryptocurrency wallet.
Prosecutors allege the funds passed through at least two cryptocurrency swaps before being moved into services designed to obscure the transactions. The FBI traced the wallet anyway, linking AlphaRaccoon to a payment processor account registered in Spagnuolo's name.
Spagnuolo faces up to 20 years in prison. This case follows the April charging of US Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke for using classified military information to win over $400,000 on Polymarket.