A Google software engineer has been arrested in the US after he allegedly used confidential company data to place predictive bets that earned him more than $1 million.Michele Spagnuolo, an Italian national who worked at Google, used internal search trends information from the company to place bets on prediction platform Polymarket involving singer D4vd, who is currently jailed in a murder case.According to a federal criminal complaint unsealed in New York on Wednesday, Spagnuolo accessed non-public “year of search” data through his role at Google and used the information to make profitable bets before the results became publicly known. Spagnuolo used a Polymarket account called “AlphaRaccoon” to place bets predicting that D4vd would become one of the “5 Most Searched People on Google of 2025” and even the #1 searched person of the year.At the time, Polymarket gave D4vd almost no chance of topping the rankings. However, internal Google search data already showed that the singer had surpassed Kendrick Lamar as the most searched person of 2025. Using this inside information, Spagnuolo placed bets worth less than $1,000 and later collected about $1.2 million in winnings.Federal prosecutors also accused him of trying to hide the source of the money.
They said Spagnuolo “took deliberate steps to conceal his unlawful use of non-public information by attempting to conceal the source and ownership of his illegal proceeds.”Spagnuolo was arrested on Wednesday and charged with wire fraud, commodity fraud and money laundering. He appeared before a federal magistrate judge but did not make any confession. He was later released on $2.25 million bail.The case also attracted attention due to the D4vd criminal case. The singer is currently in custody after being accused of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in April 2025. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge. It has not yet been confirmed whether D4vd was involved in the betting scheme or had any connection to Spagnuolo’s actions.
