Federal prosecutors charged a Google employee with fraud for using confidential data to fuel a $1.2 million windfall on Polymarket bets. Michele Spagnuolo, a staff information security engineer, allegedly exploited access to Google’s internal Year in Search tool to predict trends like singer d4vd’s 2025 search dominance. Charges include money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud, with Spagnuolo’s AlphaRaccoon account raking in profits after Google’s December 2025 Year in Search announcement.

Polymarket flagged the account for suspicious trades months prior.