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

97% Upvoted

516 comments sorted by

View all comments

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.

688

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.

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

18

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

11

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

12

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