A Google employee has been arrested and charged in a federal fraud case after prosecutors allege he used confidential company data to place highly profitable bets tied to online prediction markets involving singer D4vd.
According to a federal criminal complaint unsealed in New York, Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian software engineer at Google, allegedly accessed nonpublic internal search data and used it to make strategic wagers on Polymarket, a prediction platform.
Prosecutors say Spagnuolo used an account under the name “AlphaRaccoon” to bet on outcomes related to Google’s “Year in Search” rankings. Among his wagers were predictions that D4vd would rank among Google’s most searched individuals of 2025 and potentially become the platform’s top-searched person of the year.
At the time, one of the predictions reportedly carried near-zero odds on Polymarket. However, investigators claim Spagnuolo had access to internal Google data indicating that D4vd had surged in popularity, even overtaking major public figures in search rankings.
Authorities allege he placed less than $1,000 in bets but ultimately walked away with approximately $1.2 million in winnings tied to the insider information.
The complaint further states that Spagnuolo attempted to conceal the source of his gains by disguising ownership and obscuring the flow of funds linked to the wagers.
He has since been arrested and charged with wire fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering. Spagnuolo appeared before a federal magistrate judge and was released on a $2.25 million bond, with no plea entered at this stage.
Meanwhile, D4vd remains in custody in connection with a separate and unrelated criminal case, where he has pleaded not guilty to allegations involving the 2025 murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.#newsafro_
