Google worker charged with insider trading on Polymarket

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The US justice department has charged a Google software engineer with using insider information to win bets on Polymarket. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old who lives in Switzerland, is accused of making $1.2m in profit by placing wagers on Google’s annual list of the most searched people online. Spagnuolo allegedly bet on 27 November that D4vd, a musician arrested and accused of murdering a teenager, would top the list. He did so a week later, despite the markets giving it a “near-zero probability” of happening. In April, federal prosecutors charged a US army soldier with using classified information to place bets on the capture of Nicolás Maduro. Fears of widespread insider trading have put prediction platforms under heavy scrutiny. Polymarket appears keen to show that it is willing to take action.