Criminal case
United States v. Michele Spagnuolo
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Charged
Charged by criminal complaint, unsealed May 27, 2026, with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He was presented before Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn. No indictment, plea or trial date was confirmed. The charges are allegations.
The question
Whether trading prediction-market contracts on an employer's confidential data can be prosecuted as commodities fraud and wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Michele Spagnuolo, a Google software engineer living in Switzerland, in a criminal complaint unsealed on May 27, 2026. The government alleges that from about October to early December 2025 he used confidential Google data from an internal tool to trade Polymarket contracts on Google's Year in Search rankings under the handle AlphaRaccoon, risking about $2.75 million and making about $1.2 million. He faces one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. These are allegations. The CFTC filed a parallel civil suit.
Criminal charges are allegations. Defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Docket timeline
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced the unsealing of a criminal complaint charging one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering; Spagnuolo was presented before Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn.
Source: justice.gov