Google Employee Arrested for Using Confidential Data to Bet on Polymarket

A Google software engineer has been arrested by US authorities after allegedly using internal company data to bet on the prediction market platform Polymarket. The man, Michele Spagnuolo, is accused of insider trading by using confidential information to profit from online betting. According to the US Department of Justice, Spagnuolo used unpublished Google search data to place bets on who would be the most searched person on Google in 2025. Thanks to this internal information, the 36-year-old reportedly made a profit of approximately US$1.2 million (Rp20.2 billion). Through his account, he placed bets on Google’s ‘most searched people’ list before the official results were released to the public. One of the most suspicious bets occurred in November 2025, when Spagnuolo wagered that indie pop musician D4vd would top Google’s most searched list for 2025. Despite Polymarket assigning near-zero probability to this outcome, internal Google data revealed a sharp spike in searches for D4vd following the arrest and murder charge of the singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, for the killing of a 14-year-old girl. When Google officially released the list in December 2025 and D4vd topped it, Spagnuolo’s bet yielded significant profits. Spagnuolo also reportedly bet that rapper Kendrick Lamar would feature in the top search list when internal data indicated rising search trends for him. Google confirmed that using internal confidential data for betting constitutes a serious breach of company policy. ‘The employee accessed internal materials using tools available to all staff, but using confidential information for betting is a serious violation of our policy,’ a Google spokesperson said.