{"id":19762,"date":"2026-05-28T16:15:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/google-engineer-faces-insider-trading-charges-after-using-company-secrets-to-profit-more-than-1-million-benzinga\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T16:15:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:15:02","slug":"google-engineer-faces-insider-trading-charges-after-using-company-secrets-to-profit-more-than-1-million-benzinga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/google-engineer-faces-insider-trading-charges-after-using-company-secrets-to-profit-more-than-1-million-benzinga\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Engineer Faces Insider Trading Charges After Using Company Secrets To Profit More Than $1 Million – Benzinga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michele Spagnuolo<\/strong>, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, was charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, according to a DOJ press release.
The complaint stated that Spagnuolo had access to Google\u2019s internal software tool, which provided him with confidential company information.
\u201cThe FBI remains committed to hunting down\u00a0fraudsters who betray their employer\u00a0for personal financial gains,\u201d stated\u00a0FBI Assistant Director in Charge\u00a0James C. Barnacle, Jr.<\/strong>
Google has put Spagnuolo on leave and is taking appropriate action, a company spokesperson told Benzinga. The spokesperson added that using confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of the company\u2019s policies.
Polymarket said its \u201cmarket integrity infrastructure\u201d flagged Spagnuolo\u2019s suspicious trades, leading to his arrest by the authorities.
The case lands amid intense scrutiny over insider trading on prediction markets.
Arthur Hayes,<\/strong>\u00a0Chief Investment Officer at\u00a0Maelstrom Fund<\/strong>, meanwhile, backed insider trading in prediction markets<\/a>, saying people will make better calls when information flows freely.
Disclaimer<\/strong>:\u00a0This content was partially produced with the help of\u00a0AI tools\u00a0and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.<\/em>
Photo Courtesy: PJ McDonnell on Shutterstock.com<\/em>
\u00a9 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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The Justice Department charged a software engineer at\u00a0Alphabet Inc. <\/strong>(NASDAQ:<\/a>GOOG<\/a>) (NASDAQ:<\/a>GOOGL<\/a>)-owned Google<\/strong> on Wednesday\u00a0with allegedly profiting over $1 million on Polymarket <\/strong>by misusing confidential information.
He created an account on Polymarket, a Polygon <\/strong>(CRYPTO: <\/a>POL<\/a>)-based prediction market, with a pseudonym "AlphaRaccoon,\u201d and placed several bets related to Google\u2019s internal information. When the information was finally made public, he profited roughly $1.2 million on all his wagers.
President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0backed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission\u2019s exclusive authority over prediction markets on Tuesday, while also declaring the U.S.
A\u00a0U.S. soldier was charged<\/a> last month for allegedly using classified information to profit on a Polymarket bet linked to Venezuela\u2019s ousted leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/strong> The soldier had a role in planning and executing the military operation, which gave him access to \u201csensitive\u201d information.
Congressional opposition has intensified. Last month, the\u00a0Senate unanimously passed a resolution<\/a>\u00a0banning Senators, Officers, and staff from participating in prediction markets. Bipartisan legislation<\/a>\u00a0has also been introduced to extend the ban across the entire executive branch.
Polymarket gives Elon Musk a 94% chance of becoming the world's first trillionaire this year. His new SpaceX pay package could push him toward $2 trillion.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland, was charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, according to a DOJ press release.The complaint stated that Spagnuolo had access to Google\u2019s internal software tool, which provided him with confidential company information.\u201cThe FBI remains committed to hunting down\u00a0fraudsters who betray their employer\u00a0for personal financial gains,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}