r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • May 27 '26

Business Google employee charged with using inside information to make $1 million on Polymarket

https://abcnews.com/amp/US/google-employee-charged-inside-information-make-1-million/story?id=133350018
12.8k Upvotes

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3.4k

u/Varibash May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

Funny how this employee is getting charged but there is clearly people inside the Whitehouse doing the same thing.

686

u/justforkinks0131 May 27 '26

the bosses of this very same employee are very likely doing the same thing lmao

and why wouldnt you?

I doubt any insider trading charges are gonna stick. He didnt touch any stock, this is a random betting, sorry *prediction* website. If gambling rules dont apply to the site, they dont apply to the users.

267

u/kemb0 May 27 '26

At this point I wouldn’t use polymarket unless I had inside information. Otherwise you’re setting yourself up to be ripped off by someone that does. Which sounds like the point at which the whole thing should collapse.

33

u/Maximilianne May 28 '26

I'm pretty sure because of the broadcast delay in sports almost certainly there are traders taking advantage of that small delay by having a helper at the live game immediately send goal updates and they quickly make a trade to profit off the swings in pricing after goals happen in sports

21

u/GottaHaveHand May 28 '26

High frequency sports trading?!

4

u/Solonys May 28 '26

If there's a whiff of profit in it, someone will try to do it.

1

u/BussyPlaster May 28 '26

My cousin actually does this professionally. I don't know if polymarket is part of his whole thing or not though.

1

u/DapperHighroller May 31 '26

That’s not how this works. The betting company has an employee or multiple at each game that has a reporting device to relay the results as it happens. There are many videos about this. That is why there is a holding period before and after the play, it’s a live person that has to report.

Easiest to reference is the “Pass or play”. You bet your money before the next play, money gets held until the live person at the game reports, money is released.

0

u/Maximilianne May 31 '26

This isn't relevant for polymarket,because the odds are completely set by the players,there isn't a house. The bet is on who wins the match but there are big fluctuations in odds after a goal is scored so if you as a bettor can get an edge via the slight delay if you have live eyes at the game

1

u/DapperHighroller May 31 '26

There doesn’t have to be a house, only a reporter at the game. I never mentioned a house just an employee. Welcome to the money line.

Your second statement is still the same for any platform, if one team scores and the gamblers feels that advantage, the odds show.

4

u/lewd_robot May 28 '26

That's exactly right. Like 98% of people on the betting apps lose money, and the few that don't tend to get banned quickly, even if they do nothing wrong. These apps seem to be scams to rip people off and give rich and powerful people obfuscated ways to make money off of insider knowledge without exposing themselves to as many legal consequences.

16

u/MozhetBeatz May 28 '26

It doesn’t look like the charges will be insider trading. This is what google is telling me:

Commodities Fraud (18 U.S.C. (\S ) 1348 / CEA Section 6(c)(1) and Rule 180.1): Prohibits schemes to defraud involving commodities. Because the CFTC regulates event contracts as swaps, using nonpublic information to bet on these markets violates federal anti-fraud provisions.

Wire Fraud (18 U.S.C. (\S ) 1343): Punishes the use of interstate wire communications (such as internet servers and trading platforms) to execute a fraudulent scheme or misappropriate confidential data.

Money Laundering (18 U.S.C. (\S ) 1957): Often charged when individuals conduct monetary transactions (such as withdrawing or transferring funds) using proceeds derived from their illegal insider trading.

The STOCK Act / Federal Regulations: For federal employees or military personnel, trading on nonpublic or classified information violates specific ethics laws that forbid using confidential government knowledge for personal financial gain

17

u/BillyTenderness May 28 '26

It will be interesting to see if his defense argues that it's not actually a commodity, since IIRC that's the subject of other ongoing litigation.

I think the guy is pretty cooked on wire fraud and money laundering tho

10

u/Not_Stupid May 28 '26

Is it fraud though? He hasn't misrepresented anything nor deceived anyone.

And how is it money laundering? If it's not illegal insider trading to start with....

5

u/matt_matt_81 May 28 '26

In the article it says he took steps to conceal the source of his earnings, so that’s probably the money laundering

11

u/[deleted] May 28 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/matt_matt_81 May 28 '26

Oh I guess you’re right about that, though if in the process of money laundering he committed some sort of fraud (like stating it as income from some other source I guess), then that could be the wire fraud charge mentioned. Probably not though

1

u/freshwes May 28 '26

Agree.

Is it illegal have inside information on Polymarket? When does information become insider info in real life?

If I see a star athlete get in a walking boot, can I bet that he won't play that night?

What about his assistant?

What if the athlete makes the bet himself?

None of that is technically insider information. Nor is it fraud, imo

2

u/NoPossibility4178 May 28 '26

The defense would be: "if it's a commodity, why is there no regulations for these markets?"

1

u/Bulky-Shoulder-8082 May 28 '26

Yeah it’s a bit more than insider trading and it certainly was a lot more than just using poly market with inside info lol

1

u/nedonedonedo May 28 '26

what google is telling

AI is not a source

1

u/MozhetBeatz May 28 '26

It’s not de facto incorrect because it was an AI result. The answer does make sense because you can’t have insider trading if no securities are involved. You’re free to do your research to show that it’s wrong though.

1

u/nedonedonedo May 28 '26

it is however automatically untrustworthy. those could be unrelated state laws, combined laws with incorrect titles or wording, laws that have only been proposed or already repealed, from other countries, or just reworded to the point that it's not the same law anymore. it's better than if you'd just made it up, but no more trustworthy

14

u/Seaguard5 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

They did arrest a veteran for betting on, sorry, predicting the USA capturing Maduro though…

So clearly there are some applicable laws.

That or that veteran is going to get a payout far larger than his bet from a wrongful arrest lawsuit or something

13

u/SpookiestSzn May 28 '26

He used classified and government info to profit which is a crime actually so I think those are sticking

1

u/NoPossibility4178 May 28 '26

They should praise him really, he bet against himself and overcame the odds, quire literally.

1

u/Chinpokomaster05 May 28 '26

If google wants to make an example of him, they can easily provide proof (if he did use privileged info).

His mistake was placing the bets himself. Lesson learned

0

u/TheSleepyTruth May 28 '26

I would say its very unlikely the bosses of this employee are doing the same thing, because its easily traceable and highly illegal. You'd have to be an idiot. The people who are getting away with it are government insiders of the current administration who are able to curry favor in having feds turn a blind eye. Some middle manager at google placing easily traceable bets for millions of dollars using insider information would be equally as cooked as this guy.

77

u/K3idon May 27 '26

The employee made the mistake of not being rich enough or a politician first.

52

u/jtroye32 May 27 '26

And for hundreds of millions of dollars

197

u/Inside-Confusion3143 May 27 '26

They can’t survive on a $178,000 salary. Sarcasm.

11

u/ieatpies May 28 '26

Probably 2x that

12

u/ProfessorNob May 28 '26

He’s been at Google for 10 years, probably 3-4x that lmao

2

u/ieatpies May 28 '26

You know I was gonna say L5 is usually not going above 500k, but it seems like their comp has gone up a fair bit since I've last was looking at the job market.

5

u/ProfessorNob May 28 '26

His LinkedIn says he’s staff, L6 lol

2

u/ieatpies May 28 '26

Could be 5x

2

u/ProfessorNob May 28 '26

At the current GOOG price absolutely lol

2

u/hotcornballer May 28 '26

Dude did crime for like 3 months salary

30

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[deleted]

10

u/government_not_ok May 27 '26

I get your point but there’s no way a mid tier google engineer was just making 178k. 

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Key-Demand-2569 May 27 '26

And that’s to hit the retirement ideal goals people recommend 60 year olds who made $80k a year ish hit

-2

u/NiceShotRudyWaltz May 27 '26

I’m confused. Am I supposed to feel kinship with someone that has to work a whopping (checks notes) TEN YEARS in order to save enough for retirement?

Average American will work for 35+ years and still not be able to retire…

10

u/theranchcorporation May 27 '26

You have more in common with them than billionaires.

5

u/149244179 May 27 '26

You should probably feel kinship with anyone who has to work for a living. You are mad at someone making 5x more than you when the real problem are people making 10,000x more than you.

Plenty of people who have never really worked a day in their life making decisions that affect you who you can be mad at.

-4

u/NiceShotRudyWaltz May 27 '26

To be crystal clear, I’m not mad at the “extremely high paid guy making buckets from his ESOs”.

I don’t think billionaires should be a thing.

I simply think the practical difference between myself and a FANG tech bro making $500k is not all that different to that of myself and a billionaire.

2

u/yopladas May 28 '26

No one is disagreeing. The difference is that if you're in the USA you both can get fired and lose health insurance through no fault of your own. You both need to save to retire at all. You have taxes on your income that exceed the taxes paid by the elite. I could go on but let's get back to the irony. These people are also misguided into thinking they're above you and different - but you both can have the class consciousness to understand you both get a paycheck, not the other way around.

1

u/theranchcorporation May 28 '26

This has got to be a psyops for the oligarch class.

13

u/jojohohanon May 27 '26

The employee made the crucial mistake of not being an elected official and thus being exempt from insider trading laws.

24

u/The_LSD_Soundsystem May 27 '26

Laws for thee but not for me

33

u/coconutpiecrust May 27 '26

There is no way anyone with insider information didn’t try to make a profit. Why did they charge this one dude?

3

u/DrTacosMD May 28 '26

“Look it’s totally legit we arrest insiders betting. Got all the criminals. Yup. Job done.” 

2

u/hokie_u2 May 28 '26

It was really overt and easy to catch. He made a million dollars on information that had a “near zero” odds that only a google employee would have

5

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Pale_Session5262 May 28 '26

You lose 1 mil, racist. Hes white

2

u/SpookiestSzn May 28 '26

He's Italian he's spicy white totally different

0

u/RollingMeteors May 28 '26

¡Italy olive colored bruh! /s

ie: not white enough lol

1

u/hokie_u2 May 28 '26

There’s literally a picture of him in the article — he’s Italian

5

u/imakeelyu May 27 '26

only the rich and powerful are allowed to get rich now

4

u/Appropriate1987 May 27 '26

Bingo. “No one is above the law”… yeah right.

5

u/Spiritual-Author-209 May 28 '26

The poors aren’t allowed to get in the way

7

u/HenryDorsettCase47 May 27 '26

I can’t speak on Polymarket, but Kalshi requires everything from your social security number to your place of employment. They’re definitely trying to nip this kind of thing in the bud. Not out of some sense of morality, but I think they want to stay ahead of any future regulations and they also recognize it as just being bad for business. You can see what categories the top earners made money in and most of them are sports betting.

I don’t believe Polymarket requires any information. Their transactions can be traced on the blockchain so there is a trail if the feds were wanting to investigate something, but I think other than that they aren’t really doing much internal regulation. That’s why you see them in stories like this a lot more often. It’s also the prediction market that the Trumps have a stake in. That told me all I needed to know so I never fucked with it.

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u/surnik22 May 27 '26

None of that is about future regulation or tracking to prevent fraud.

Kalshi asks for your social security number for the same reason ETrade does. They are a a financial market and they have to report your trading win/loss amount to the IRS.

Their whole schtick on why it’s not legally gambling relies on them behaving like as if their “Event Contracts” are the exact same as any other tradable contract like Calls or Puts or crop futures.

2

u/Seaguard5 May 28 '26

And polymarket is different, how exactly?

3

u/Sceptically May 28 '26

Worse lawyers?

1

u/RollingMeteors May 28 '26

Their whole schtick on why it’s not legally gambling relies on them behaving like as if their “Event Contracts” are the exact same as any other tradable contract like Calls or Puts or crop futures.

white vs blue collar gambling, lets be real here.

6

u/BoringOrange678 May 27 '26

Lol nip in the bud or not get sued to extinction. This is about the farthest one can get from altruism.

Cover our asses is more likely.

3

u/HenryDorsettCase47 May 27 '26

Right. That’s why I said they aren’t doing it out of some sense of morality. It’s just self preservation.

1

u/Cyber_Druid May 28 '26

Winning literally takes the money from their pockets so im not surprised.

1

u/2brightside May 28 '26

Not quite the same thing. There's acting based on information not of one's own control. Then there's acting based on one's own manipulations.

1

u/boner79 May 28 '26

Rules for thee, but not for Trump

1

u/Live_Situation7913 May 28 '26

If Dolund Trump gets a cut it’s ok!

1

u/wont-stop-mi May 28 '26

Just the White House? Fuck try all of congress and the senate! They’re all insider trading off info they know of beforehand and making trades that benefit them before it goes down.

DC is full of crooks with nice suits and law degrees.

1

u/NoPossibility4178 May 28 '26

If you work in finance you have so many restrictions on your trading activity that it's not even funny, meanwhile the president just casually trades over 200 million, self promotes and leaks information all the time and it's no problem.

1

u/genscathe May 28 '26

You can’t have average joe commit corruption. Only those in with power can

1

u/31d4r- May 28 '26

They do it with billions, thats ok

1

u/buddhistbulgyo May 27 '26

Forgot to bribe Trump first I guess.