Overview
- Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed charges on May 27, 2026, accusing Michele Spagnuolo of commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering for using nonpublic Google search data to bet on Polymarket.
- Prosecutors allege Spagnuolo placed bets as the account AlphaRaccoon and correctly wagered that singer D4vd would be Google’s most-searched person for 2025, netting about $1.2 million after the Year in Search results were announced.
- The complaint says he misappropriated confidential internal data, then tried to hide the source and ownership of his winnings, and he was arrested in New York and released on a $2.25 million bond.
- Polymarket users had flagged AlphaRaccoon’s unusually high accuracy—22 wins in 23 specific search-trend bets—months before the charges, and the platform says it will strengthen security controls.
- The choice to charge under commodities fraud statutes signals prosecutors may treat prediction-market contracts as regulated financial instruments, which could draw CFTC or other oversight and change how these platforms operate.