Google Employee Arrested for Using Internal 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. Michele Spagnuolo is accused of insider trading, 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 According to the US Department of Justice, Spagnuolo used unpublished Google search data to place bets on who would be the most searched person on Google in 2025.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 the internal data, the 36-year-old allegedly made a profit of approximately US$1.2 million or around Rp20.2 billion. Through his account, he placed bets on Google’s ‘most searched people’ list before the official results were published. One of the most suspicious bets occurred in November 2025. 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. However, Google’s internal data indeed showed D4vd’s searches surging after the singer, born David Anthony Burke, was arrested and charged with the murder of a 14-year-old girl. When Google released the official list in December 2025 and D4vd topped it, Spagnuolo’s bet yielded substantial profits. In addition to D4vd, Spagnuolo reportedly also bet that rapper Kendrick Lamar would feature in the top search list when internal Google data indicated rising search trends for Lamar. The company confirmed that using internal confidential information for betting constitutes a serious breach of its policies. ‘The employee accessed internal materials using tools available to all staff, but using confidential information for betting is a serious violation of our policies,’ a Google spokesperson said.