The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Wednesday filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Michele Spagnuolo, a Switzerland-based Google software engineer, accusing him of using nonpublic information about Google’s 2025 Year in Search list to generate approximately $1.2 million in profits on Polymarket.com.
The complaint alleges that from October through December 2025, Spagnuolo purchased “Yes” or “No” shares on at least 23 Year in Search event contracts, including “#1 Searched Person on Google this year” and “Top 5 Most Searched People on Google 2025,” with near-perfect accuracy. He traded under the handle “AlphaRaccoon,” the CFTC said. A parallel criminal complaint was unsealed the same day by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
“Employees who are entrusted with confidential business information cannot misappropriate that information for personal financial gain,” said David I. Miller, Director of Enforcement at the CFTC.
The CFTC is seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction. The case is the second known U.S. federal prediction-market insider trading action, according to WIRED.
