Google engineer charged over $2.75M Polymarket bets

Federal prosecutors charged Michele Spagnuolo, a staff software engineer at Google, with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering. The criminal complaint alleges she used confidential Google data to place about $2.75 million in bets on the Polymarket prediction platform between Oct. 15 and Dec. 4 last year and won roughly $1.2 million.

The Department of Justice says Spagnuolo had access to an internal Google tool marked ‘Google Confidential’ that contained nonpublic ‘Year in Search’ data. Prosecutors allege she used that nonpublic information to trade on contracts tied to Google outcomes on Polymarket.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a parallel civil complaint, accusing Spagnuolo of violating the Commodity Exchange Act and seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction.

Google confirmed Spagnuolo is a staff software engineer and that she accessed marketing material through an internal tool available to employees. The company described the reported use of confidential information to place bets as a serious breach of policy and has placed her on leave while it considers disciplinary action.

Polymarket, the on-chain prediction market where the trades allegedly occurred, noted that blockchain trading leaves an audit trail and that ‘bad actors leave footprints.’ The platform has updated its prohibited-conduct rules and increased market surveillance.

Tre Upshaw, founder of prediction‑market analytics firm Polysights, described the case as evidence that insider activity on prediction markets can be identified and prosecuted and urged platforms to implement stronger surveillance and insider-risk controls.

The Spagnuolo prosecution follows a separate federal case in which a U.S. Army master sergeant, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, pleaded not guilty to charges that he used classified military information to place winning bets on Polymarket related to a reported operation in Venezuela. Van Dyke was released on bond and subject to travel restrictions.

Several states, including New York, California and Illinois, have moved to restrict public employees from using nonpublic government information to trade on event markets. Some prediction-market firms have revised rules and begun screening certain public figures and athletes.

Prosecutors in the DOJ case are seeking criminal penalties. The CFTC seeks civil remedies including monetary penalties, restitution, disgorgement and limits on future trading and registration.