Google security engineer arrested for allegedly using confidential search data to win $1.2M on Polymarket
By
Matt Kapko
Slow-proofed and worth the wait. Worth its weight in flour.
Summary
A Google security engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, was arrested in New York and charged with insider trading-style crimes for allegedly using confidential Google internal data to place bets on Polymarket. He is accused of accessing Google's nonpublic Year in Search data to predict the most searched people in 2025, netting over $1.2 million in profits through multiple trades on the prediction marketplace.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledA Google security engineer was arrested in New York and charged with crimes related to bets he allegedly placed on Polymarket using confidential information he pulled from Google systems, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen who lives in Switzerland, is accused of placing multiple trades on the prediction marketplace last year that netted him a profit of more than $1.2 million.
He allegedly abused internal access to Google's nonpublic Year in Search data and placed a series of bets on the most searched people on Google in 2025.
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