> Google Engineer Faces Fraud and Money-Laundering Charges After Earning $1.2 Million On Polymarket Using Non-Public Search Data

Spagnuolo, 36, now faces fraud and money-laundering charges. Prosecutors alleged he earned $1.2 million by illegally trading contracts on Polymarket involving bets on the most-searched people of 2025.

A criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office alleges that Spagnuolo last year made bets based on nonpublic search data, access to which Google restricts to “only a limited number of employees.” The data revealed the most searched people at that time to be musicians Kendrick Lamar and d4vd, who both finished in the top five, court records said.

Prosecutors allege that from October to December of last year, Spagnuolo wagered approximately $2.7 million on 25 bets tied to the Google Year in Search results.

When cashing in his winnings from the Google bets in December, Spagnuolo used several steps to obfuscate the digital money trail, including the use of a crypto-transfer service with special privacy protection, according to the DOJ’s criminal complaint.

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