About this episode

The episode discusses a Google engineer's alleged use of internal data for betting on Polymarket and the subsequent legal implications.

A Google information security engineer with access to the company's internal search trend data allegedly used that data to place 23 Polymarket bets — and won 22 of them, netting nearly $1 million. His handle was AlphaRaccoon. The CFTC and DOJ aren't laughing. In this episode of Ethicast Reacts, host Bill Coffin and Ethisphere Chief Strategy Officer Erica Salmon-Byrne break down the charges — commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering — and what the case reveals about a risk most ethics and compliance teams haven't fully mapped yet. This is the fourth prediction market episode of Ethicast Reacts so far, and if the headlines are any indicator, it won't be the last.

People in this episode

Host: Bill Coffin

Guest: Erica Salmon-Byrne

Topics covered

• prediction markets
• commodities fraud
• wire fraud
• money laundering
• ethics
• compliance

Keywords

• Google engineer
• Polymarket
• CFTC
• DOJ
• commodities fraud
• money laundering
• ethics
• compliance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Google, CFTC, DOJ

Products: Polymarket

More episodes of Ethicast

• What Compliance Teams Miss About Third-Party Risk · June 8, 2026 · 23 min
• Stop Hoarding Data: How AI Data Trading Improves Supply Chain Risk · May 18, 2026 · 14 min
• Called Before Congress? How Companies Can Prepare for Congressional Investigations · May 11, 2026 · 17 min

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