Google Engineer Charged for Insider Trading on Google Search Data
TL;DR. A Google security engineer used confidential company data to win
.2 million through insider trading on a decentralized prediction market.
- The engineer, Michele Spagnuolo, bet on Google's 'Year in Search' results using an internal tool and an alias.
- US authorities filed criminal and civil charges against Spagnuolo, who is an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland.
- The FBI traced the winnings and linked the Polymarket account to Spagnuolo's identity.
Google security engineer Michele Spagnuolo accessed confidential 'Year in Search' data.
Spagnuolo used this data to place bets on Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market.
He won approximately
.2 million by betting with near-perfect accuracy on trending search terms.