A Google employee has been arrested on allegations of earning 11.5 crore rupees by using confidential search data on a crypto betting platform.
According to US authorities, 36-year-old Italian citizen Michele Spagnuolo used internal information from Google to place bets on the prediction platform Polymarket.
Authorities said the accused had been working at Google’s Zurich office since 2014 and allegedly accessed confidential information in 2025 regarding the most-searched personality of the year to place bets.
Michele Spagnuolo correctly predicted that American singer D4vd would become the most-searched personality, despite extremely low odds in the market at the time.
The singer has been accused in connection with the murder of a 14-year-old girl, making his name widely featured in global headlines.
International media reports say the accused misused commercially sensitive confidential data from Google and earned millions of dollars based on it.
A Google spokesperson said the company is cooperating with law enforcement agencies and that the employee has been suspended immediately.
Google has also confirmed the case and the tech giant added that using confidential company information for betting is a serious violation of its policies.
Earlier, a US special forces officer was also accused of making around $400,000 by placing bets on Polymarket using confidential information.
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