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Every state-changing event for Michele Spagnuolo: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot taken at submission time, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-06-03 02:12:29Z
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   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"e4c2d829-0e45-45ec-9756-c9021d22d6af","kind":"publish","page_slug":"michele-spagnuolo","published_at":"2026-06-03T02:12:29.911Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Michele Spagnuolo","sections":[{"content":"Michele Spagnuolo (publicly known online as 'Miki') is an Italian national residing in Zürich, Switzerland. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (2011), a Master of Science in Computer Science (4.0 GPA) from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2013), and a Laurea Magistrale in Computer Engineering with honors from Politecnico di Milano (2013). According to his personal website (miki.it), he joined Google in 2014 and held the title of Staff Information Security Engineer at Google Zürich at the time of his arrest, a tenure of approximately 12 years. His documented professional work includes co-authoring the 'strict-dynamic' keyword in the CSP3 W3C specification (described as protecting more than a third of the Internet's HTML traffic against cross-site scripting), developing the Rosetta Flash exploitation technique (nominated for a Pwnie Award), authoring BitIodine (described as the first open-source Bitcoin blockchain analysis framework, cited by hundreds of academic publications), and leading the Agent & Web Observability area within Google's Information Security team. He maintained public profiles on GitHub (github.com/mikispag) and X (x.com/mikispag).","heading":"Background","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Michele Spagnuolo personal website (miki.it)","type":"official","url":"https://miki.it/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Google Research — People: Michele Spagnuolo","type":"official","url":"https://research.google/people/michelespagnuolo/"}]},{"content":"On May 27, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) unsealed a federal criminal complaint charging Spagnuolo with three counts: (1) one count of violating the Commodity Exchange Act (maximum sentence 10 years); (2) one count of wire fraud (maximum sentence 20 years); and (3) one count of money laundering (maximum sentence 20 years). The combined maximum exposure is 50 years imprisonment. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Burnett, Ryan B. Finkel, and Allison Nichols. The complaint was signed by FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz. Spagnuolo was arrested the morning of May 27, 2026, in New York and appeared before a federal magistrate judge the same day. He did not enter a plea and was released on a $2.25 million bond, secured by $1 million cash, with $50,000 required to be posted at the time of appearance. These are allegations only; no conviction has been entered.","heading":"Criminal Charges (May 2026)","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ SDNY Press Release — Google Employee Charged With Insider Trading","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/google-employee-charged-insider-trading"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Bloomberg — Google Engineer Charged With Insider Trading on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-27/google-engineer-charged-with-insider-trading-on-polymarket"},{"credibility":1,"name":"NPR — DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5836659/google-polymarket-insider-trading-doj-charges"},{"credibility":1,"name":"ABC News — Google information security engineer charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://abcnews.com/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018"}]},{"content":"According to the federal complaint and parallel CFTC civil complaint, between approximately October 2025 and December 2025, Spagnuolo allegedly accessed an internal Google software tool displaying a red 'Google Confidential' banner that contained nonpublic data from Google's annual 'Year in Search' campaign — a marketing initiative publishing the year's most-searched individuals and topics. Prosecutors allege this tool was technically available to all Google employees but was restricted from use for personal financial gain under Google's policies. Spagnuolo is alleged to have accessed this confidential data and then placed bets on Polymarket.com — a crypto-based prediction market platform — on at least 23 separate contracts relating to which individuals would appear on Google's 2025 Year in Search list, including the '#1 Searched Person on Google this year' and 'Top 5 Most Searched People on Google 2025' markets. The complaint alleges his trades showed 'near-perfect accuracy' consistent with foreknowledge. A specific example cited by prosecutors: Spagnuolo allegedly placed a bet on musician d4vd to be Google's most-searched person in 2025 when the implied market probability was near zero, and collected substantial winnings after Google publicly announced its Year in Search results on December 4, 2025. In total, prosecutors allege he wagered approximately $2.75 million across 25 outcomes and netted approximately $1.2 million in profit.","heading":"Alleged Scheme: Nonpublic Google Search-Trend Data","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"CNBC — Google employee charged with $1M Polymarket insider trading bet on search term","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/27/google-employee-polymarket-insider-trading.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk — Google engineer insider-traded search results on Polymarket, Feds allege","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/05/27/google-engineer-insider-traded-search-results-on-polymarket-feds-allege"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BleepingComputer — US charges Google security engineer with Polymarket insider trading","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-charges-google-security-engineer-with-polymarket-insider-trading/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"TechCrunch — Google engineer charged with insider trading after making $1.2M on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/google-engineer-charged-with-insider-trading-after-making-1-2m-on-polymarket/"}]},{"content":"The complaint alleges Spagnuolo funded his Polymarket account and moved proceeds through cryptocurrency wallets and multiple crypto-swapping services, including platforms alleged to remove or obscure wallet addresses from on-chain records. On approximately December 10, 2025 — days after the Year in Search results were announced and markets resolved — the AlphaRaccoon account allegedly transferred approximately 5.045 million USDC.e to wallet address 0xAf6. Proceeds were allegedly routed through an Italian payment processor account opened using Spagnuolo's government-issued Italian identification. After online communities on Discord and X allegedly began speculating about possible insider trading tied to the AlphaRaccoon account, Spagnuolo allegedly removed the 'AlphaRaccoon' username from his Polymarket account, replacing it with an alphanumeric wallet address. FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz is listed as the affiant on the criminal complaint, and investigators traced the account to Spagnuolo in part through the payment processor registered under his Italian identification.","heading":"Alleged Money Movement and Obfuscation","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"BleepingComputer — US charges Google security engineer with Polymarket insider trading","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-charges-google-security-engineer-with-polymarket-insider-trading/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CyberScoop — Google security engineer accused of turning confidential search trends into $1.2M win on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://cyberscoop.com/google-security-engineer-insider-trading-polymarket/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"NPR — DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5836659/google-polymarket-insider-trading-doj-charges"}]},{"content":"Concurrent with the criminal complaint, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a parallel civil complaint against Spagnuolo in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 27, 2026 (CFTC Release 9237-26). The CFTC alleges Spagnuolo violated the Commodity Exchange Act by misappropriating Google's confidential nonpublic Year in Search data to trade prediction-market contracts on Polymarket. The civil action seeks restitution to harmed parties, disgorgement of approximately $1.2 million in alleged ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.","heading":"CFTC Civil Action","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"CFTC Press Release 9237-26 — CFTC Charges Google Employee with Insider Trading in Search Result-Related Event Contracts","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9237-26"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CFTC Civil Complaint PDF — Michele Spagnuolo","type":"court_filing","url":"https://www.cftc.gov/media/14046/ENF_SpagnuoloComplaint052726/download"}]},{"content":"Following the announcement of charges, Google placed Spagnuolo on administrative leave pending further action. A Google spokesperson stated that the employee 'accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies,' and indicated the company would 'take the appropriate action.' U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated: 'Today's charges reinforce a decades-old message: corporate insiders cannot use confidential business information to turn a profit in our markets. As alleged, Spagnuolo violated the duties he owed to his employer and used Google's confidential business information to make more than $1.2 million in trading profits on Polymarket. Insider trading compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven conduct investigated and prosecuted.'","heading":"Google's Response and Employment Status","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"ABC News — Google information security engineer charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://abcnews.com/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CyberScoop — Google security engineer accused of turning confidential search trends into $1.2M win on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://cyberscoop.com/google-security-engineer-insider-trading-polymarket/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ SDNY Press Release — Google Employee Charged With Insider Trading","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/google-employee-charged-insider-trading"}]},{"content":"The Spagnuolo case is the second high-profile federal criminal case connected to alleged insider trading on Polymarket in approximately six weeks in 2026. In April 2026, then-active U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested on charges that he used classified military intelligence regarding a U.S. operation related to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to profit approximately $400,000 on Polymarket contracts. Polymarket's Chief Legal Officer publicly stated that Polymarket 'is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States,' citing close cooperation with the SDNY U.S. Attorney's Office and the CFTC. These cases represent an emerging area of DOJ and CFTC enforcement applying classical insider-trading and misappropriation theories to crypto-based prediction markets regulated as commodity markets under the Commodity Exchange Act. For additional background on Polymarket as a platform, see the AVOID.NET Polymarket investigation page.","heading":"Broader Context: Polymarket Insider Trading Enforcement","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune — Meet the 38-year-old special forces officer charged with using classified info about Maduro's capture to win $400,000 online","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/2026/04/24/special-forces-officer-charged-maduro-insider-trading-polymarket-gannon-ken-van-dyke/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CNBC — Special Forces Sgt. in Polymarket Maduro raid bet case released","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/24/special-forces-van-dyke-polymarket-bets-maduro-raid-kalshi.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"TechCrunch — Google engineer charged with insider trading after making $1.2M on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/google-engineer-charged-with-insider-trading-after-making-1-2m-on-polymarket/"}]},{"content":"As of June 2026, Spagnuolo has been charged but has not entered a plea. He was released on a $2.25 million bond (secured by $1 million cash, with $50,000 posted at the initial appearance) following his May 27, 2026 initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York. The case remains at the pre-trial stage. No conviction has been entered. All allegations in the criminal complaint and CFTC civil complaint are unproven.","heading":"Current Legal Status","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"ABC News — Google information security engineer charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://abcnews.com/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018"},{"credibility":1,"name":"NPR — DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5836659/google-polymarket-insider-trading-doj-charges"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ SDNY Press Release — Google Employee Charged With Insider Trading","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/google-employee-charged-insider-trading"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CFTC Press Release 9237-26 — CFTC Charges Google Employee with Insider Trading in Search Result-Related Event Contracts","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9237-26"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CFTC Civil Complaint PDF — Michele Spagnuolo","type":"court_filing","url":"https://www.cftc.gov/media/14046/ENF_SpagnuoloComplaint052726/download"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Bloomberg — Google Engineer Charged With Insider Trading on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-27/google-engineer-charged-with-insider-trading-on-polymarket"},{"credibility":1,"name":"NPR — DOJ charges Google staffer over Polymarket trades netting $1.2 million","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5836659/google-polymarket-insider-trading-doj-charges"},{"credibility":1,"name":"ABC News — Google information security engineer charged with using inside information to make $1M on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://abcnews.com/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CNBC — Google employee charged with $1M Polymarket insider trading bet on search term","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/27/google-employee-polymarket-insider-trading.html"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune — Google engineer faces charges after allegedly using employer's confidential data to pocket $1.2 million on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/2026/05/28/michele-spagnuolo-google-engineer-polymarket-insider-trading-commodities-fraud/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"TechCrunch — Google engineer charged with insider trading after making $1.2M on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/google-engineer-charged-with-insider-trading-after-making-1-2m-on-polymarket/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk — Google engineer insider-traded search results on Polymarket, Feds allege","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/05/27/google-engineer-insider-traded-search-results-on-polymarket-feds-allege"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BleepingComputer — US charges Google security engineer with Polymarket insider trading","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-charges-google-security-engineer-with-polymarket-insider-trading/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CyberScoop — Google security engineer accused of turning confidential search trends into $1.2M win on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://cyberscoop.com/google-security-engineer-insider-trading-polymarket/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The Hill — Google employee charged with insider trading on Polymarket","type":"news_article","url":"https://thehill.com/business/5898642-google-employee-insider-trading/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Michele Spagnuolo personal website (miki.it)","type":"official","url":"https://miki.it/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Google Research People — Michele Spagnuolo","type":"official","url":"https://research.google/people/michelespagnuolo/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune — Special Forces officer charged with using classified info about Maduro's capture to win $400,000 online","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/2026/04/24/special-forces-officer-charged-maduro-insider-trading-polymarket-gannon-ken-van-dyke/"}],"summary":"Michele Spagnuolo, 36, a Staff Information Security Engineer at Google Zürich known online as 'AlphaRaccoon,' was arrested in New York on May 27, 2026, and charged by federal prosecutors with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He is alleged to have accessed nonpublic internal Google search-trend data to place highly accurate prediction-market bets on Polymarket, generating approximately $1.2 million in profits on roughly $2.75 million wagered. The charges, filed simultaneously by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), represent the second high-profile federal insider-trading prosecution arising from Polymarket activity in 2026. All allegations are unproven; Spagnuolo has not entered a plea.","timeline":[{"date":"2014-01-01","event":"Michele Spagnuolo joins Google as an information security engineer, based in Zürich, Switzerland.","source":"Michele Spagnuolo personal website (miki.it); multiple news reports","source_url":"https://miki.it/"},{"date":"2025-10-01","event":"Spagnuolo allegedly begins placing bets on Polymarket under the username 'AlphaRaccoon,' targeting contracts related to Google's 2025 Year in Search campaign. Prosecutors allege he accessed a confidential internal Google tool marked 'Google Confidential' containing nonpublic Year in Search data.","source":"DOJ SDNY criminal complaint; CFTC civil complaint","source_url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/google-employee-charged-insider-trading"},{"date":"2025-12-04","event":"Google publicly announces its 2025 Year in Search results. Polymarket markets begin to resolve. Spagnuolo's AlphaRaccoon account allegedly collects approximately $1.2 million in winnings.","source":"NPR; BleepingComputer; CNBC","source_url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5836659/google-polymarket-insider-trading-doj-charges"},{"date":"2025-12-10","event":"Approximately 5.045 million USDC.e allegedly transferred from the AlphaRaccoon wallet to address 0xAf6. Proceeds allegedly routed through crypto-swapping services and an Italian payment processor linked to Spagnuolo's government ID. Separately, the AlphaRaccoon username is allegedly removed from the Polymarket account after online communities speculate about insider trading.","source":"BleepingComputer; CyberScoop","source_url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-charges-google-security-engineer-with-polymarket-insider-trading/"},{"date":"2026-04-24","event":"U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke arrested on separate Polymarket insider trading charges — the first high-profile such arrest of 2026 — for allegedly using classified military intelligence to profit approximately $400,000 on bets related to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.","source":"Fortune; CNBC","source_url":"https://fortune.com/2026/04/24/special-forces-officer-charged-maduro-insider-trading-polymarket-gannon-ken-van-dyke/"},{"date":"2026-05-27","event":"DOJ SDNY unseals criminal complaint charging Spagnuolo with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. CFTC simultaneously files civil complaint (Release 9237-26). Spagnuolo arrested in New York, appears before a federal magistrate judge, does not enter a plea, and is released on $2.25 million bond. Google places him on administrative leave.","source":"DOJ SDNY press release; CFTC press release 9237-26; ABC News; Bloomberg","source_url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/google-employee-charged-insider-trading"}]},"v":1}

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