Insider Trading: Google employee charged over Polymarket bets

A Google software engineer was charged with insider trading on the Polymarket betting platform in New York on Wednesday. The Italian citizen, known on Polymarket as “AlphaRaccoon,” allegedly made more than $1.2 million in profits using confidential company data, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

“Today's charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets,” the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is quoted as saying. “Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted.”

Fraud and money laundering

According to the indictment, between October and December 2025, “AlphaRaccoon” bet on various contracts on Polymarket concerning Google search results, including bets on which individuals and terms would appear in Google's year-end review. It is alleged that he used confidential Google internal data, which he could access as an employee of the company. According to the indictment, he made a series of remarkably accurate predictions.

Among other things, he allegedly bet correctly that the singer D4vd would be the most trending person in the 2025 Google year-end review – a bet whose probability of success was estimated by Polymarket at approximately zero percent at the time. In total, “AlphaRaccoon” is said to have earned more than $1.2 million from such bets. He is also accused of attempting to conceal the source of these earnings. He faces charges of fraud and money laundering.

Google told ABC News that the employee had accessed material that was in principle available to all employees. “But using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies,” the company stated. The employee has therefore been suspended.

The Google employee appeared before a federal court in New York on Wednesday and was released on $2.25 million bail.

Second case on Polymarket

This is the second known case where the U.S. Justice Department has charged someone with insider trading on prediction market platforms. In April, a U.S. soldier was arrested who, according to the indictment, had used classified information about the military operation to arrest former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to earn around $400,000 on Polymarket.

In both cases, the prediction market platform Polymarket has cooperated closely with investigators, according to its statements. “We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated throughout the process,” wrote CEO Shayne Coplan on X.

In the past, Coplan has repeatedly made statements that downplay insider trading on Polymarket. However, the platform has significantly tightened its policies recently: “Insider trading is strictly prohibited,” it states on Polymarket's website. Competitor platform Kalshi also officially prohibits insider trading.

Kalshi, which operates as a U.S.-regulated derivatives exchange under the supervision of the CFTC, has initiated 200 investigations into suspicious trades, according to its statements. Polymarket, on the other hand, struggled for a long time with a clear stance. For example, CEO Coplan said in November 2025 in an interview with CBS News: “I think it's good when people have an information advantage in the market.” At the Axios BFD Summit, he stated that insider trading could even be advantageous on Polymarket because it improves price accuracy.

The U.S. House Committee on Government Oversight launched investigations into insider trading on both platforms on Friday. The Senate already barred its members from trading on prediction markets in April.

(dahe)