Prediction market betting has become a huge trend over the past couple of years, with bets on real-life events able to generate huge profits for those who can correctly guess the outcome. The use of insider information, though, is a fairly common issue, and a Google employee was recently arrested over profits through Polymarket related to Google’s 2025 Year in Search.
Reported by ABC News, Michele Spagnuolo, an information security engineer at Google, profited $1.2 million in a bet at Polymarket over who would be the most-searched-for person in 2025 as a part of Google’s annual “Year in Search” recap for 2025. The results, published in December, ranked “d4vd” – a singer-songwriter who released a popular album in 2025 and was later involved in a murder investigation, to which he has since been charged with first-degree murder – as the top trending person in Google Search last year.
Polymarket’s bets on Google’s “Year in Search” had “a near-zero probability to d4vd being ‘the #1 searched person on Google this year.’”
Spagnuolo, with his position in Google, was able to bet with knowledge that “d4vd” would be the top result. The legal complaint that led to Spagnuolo’s arrest alleges that he “took deliberate steps to conceal his unlawful use of nonpublic information by attempting to obscure the source and ownership of his unlawful proceeds.”
Google, in a statement, said that Spagnuolo has been placed on leave:
We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action.
Spagnuolo is charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and commodities fraud.
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