FBI says Google engineer used internal search data to win $1.2M on Polymarket

Federal prosecutors charged a Google software engineer with making roughly $1.2 million in profits from bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket by using confidential insider information he learned about the most searched people of 2025. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen living in Switzerland, faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The employee accessed Google's marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of company policies.

Source: Ars Technica | 2026-05-28