A Google software engineer is facing federal criminal charges after allegedly using confidential company data to earn more than $1 million on the predictions market platform Polymarket. The charges were unsealed in a federal court in New York.
Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian citizen who allegedly used the username "AlphaRaccoon," is accused of accessing Google's internal software tools to obtain nonpublic information on the top search terms in 2025. He then used that data to place substantial wagers on Polymarket related to Google search trends.
Spagnuolo appeared in court and was released on $2.25 million bail. He has been charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Google confirmed it is cooperating with law enforcement.
A blockchain-based payments prototype backed by seven major central banks and 40 large financial institutions has completed successful tests, demonstrating the ability to settle cross-border transactions cheaply and near-instantaneously. The system, known as Project Agorá, was developed under the leadership of the Bank for International Settlements and the International Institute of Finance.
The project enables commercial banks to transfer funds across borders by tokenizing deposits, using the same distributed ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. It is designed in part to help central banks and traditional financial institutions compete with US dollar-backed stablecoins — a space currently dominated by crypto firms Tether and Circle.
The project involves institutions from the US, EU, UK, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, and Mexico. Its development may widen the divide between participants and those backing Project mBridge, a rival cross-border payment system led by the Chinese central bank, which the BIS exited in 2024. Most cross-border payments today rely on the correspondent banking system, a slow and costly process long seen as overdue for reform.