Google employee charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket

10 sources covered this ⚠ Left-only compare →

Lean Left: 1 (ABC News — Top); Center: 2 (Google News, The Verge).

ABC News· May 27, 2026 · 7:24 PM UTC ·3 min read · 0 reactions · 0 comments · 35 views

Google employee charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket

TL;DR · WeSearch summary

A Google employee has been charged with fraud for allegedly using insider information to profit over $1 million through bets on Polymarket. Michele Spagnuolo, a software engineer at Google, misappropriated confidential data to place bets on user search trends. He has been charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering following his arrest in New York.

Key facts

▪Michele Spagnuolo made over $1 million by betting on Polymarket using inside information from Google.
▪He accessed confidential data to predict user search trends, including betting on the singer D4vd as the most searched person in 2025.
▪Spagnuolo has been charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

How this story was covered

9 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 42 hours. All of the coverage we found sits in one bucket: centre. That one-sidedness is itself worth noticing.

Centre · 8

▪ Google engineer arrested for using internal search data to win $1.2 million on Polymarket — TechSpot
▪ A Google engineer is facing federal charges after allegedly using his employer’s confidential data to pocket $1.2 million on Polymarket — Fortune
▪ Google employee charged with using search data to make $1.2 mil on Polymarket — Korea Times
▪ Google engineer charged with using inside information to win $1.2M on Polymarket — Crypto Briefing
▪ Google worker charged for using internal data to make $1.2m on Polymarket — BBC News — Tech
▪ Google employee charged with fraud after winning $1.2m on Polymarket — Boing Boing
▪ A Google employee allegedly used inside information to win $1.2 million on Polymarket — The Verge
▪ Google Employee Charged For Alleged Polymarket Bets - The Information — Google News

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Original publisher	ABC News — Top
Canonical URL	https://abcnews.com/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018
Publication time	Wed, 27 May 2026 15:24:27 -0400
Retrieval time	2026-05-27T19:33:03.088Z
Last seen	2026-05-27T19:33:03.088Z
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Indexing	May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)?	Allowed
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand

ABC NewsLiveVideoShowsGood Morning AmericaShopGMAInterest Successfully AddedWe'll notify you here with news aboutTurn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? OffOnStream onGoogle employee charged with using inside information to make $1 million on PolymarketMichele Spagnuolo allegedly placed bets on what users were searching for.ByAaron Katersky and Katherine FauldersMay 27, 2026, 3:23 PM4:28In this Dec. 19, 2023, file photo, a sign is posted in front of an office at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, FILEA Google employee fraudulently made more than $1 million by using inside information to place Polymarket bets on what users were searching for on Google, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in New York.

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