Google Engineer Charged with Using Search Data for $1 Million Polymarket Insider Trading Scheme

Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Google software engineer, was charged Wednesday with fraud and money laundering for allegedly exploiting nonpublic search analytics to bet on Polymarket, earning over $1 million. He used access to Google's internal trends data to wager on Google's most-searched person in 2025. The case follows a similar Army officer prosecution and signals federal authorities now treat prediction market manipulation as securities fraud.