The US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have charged a Google software engineer with insider trading tied to the crypto prediction market Polymarket. Michele Spagnuolo is accused of using non-public information he accessed at work to make roughly $1.2 million in profits on the platform.
What Spagnuolo is accused of
According to the charges, Spagnuolo accessed confidential information while employed at Google and placed trades on Polymarket based on that data. Polymarket lets users bet on event outcomes — election results, earnings reports, product launches. The DOJ says Spagnuolo knew the information was off-limits but used it anyway to get an edge. The trades were made over a period, eventually netting $1.2 million.
Criminal and civil charges
The DOJ filed criminal insider trading charges in federal court. Separately, the CFTC filed a civil enforcement action. It’s one of the first cases to apply traditional securities and commodities insider trading laws to a crypto prediction market. The CFTC has been scrutinizing Polymarket and similar platforms for compliance.
Polymarket’s response
Polymarket has not publicly commented on the charges. The platform’s terms of service prohibit using non-public information, but enforcement has been left to regulators. The case highlights how decentralized betting markets aren’t immune to old-fashioned fraud charges.
Spagnuolo hasn’t entered a plea yet. The case is being handled by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement.
