A Google employee has been sued for allegedly profiting over $1.2 million through insider trading on Polymarket using internal search data.

According to Huoxun Finance, U.S. prosecutors this week filed insider trading charges against Michel Spanuolo, a 36-year-old Italian software engineer at Google. Using the alias "AlphaRaccoon," he allegedly misappropriated internal search trend data to place bets on the prediction market platform Polymarket before Google's 2025 annual search data was released, accumulating profits exceeding $1.2 million. The FBI identified him by tracking cryptocurrency payments. Google has suspended him, stating that his actions were a serious violation of company policy. Spanuolo is charged with violating the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act, wire fraud, and money laundering, and could face years in prison.