A Google employee has been arrested in connection with a bet on the alleged murder case against singer D4vd. According to TMZ, Google software engineer Michele Spagnuolo—an Italian citizen—has been charged with fraud. He allegedly used inside information from the company to place bets involving the alleged crime. These bets allegedly won him a payout of over $1 million.
Per a federal criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday in New York, Spagnuolo accessed confidential company data with tracked user searches. He then used that information to place numerous bets on Polymarket, a digital prediction platform.
Allegedly, Spagnulo’s bets were related to D4vd and the murder case against him. Spagnuolo is accused of using his “AlphaRaccoon” Polymarket account to vote “yes” for D4vd being ranked in “Google’s Top 5 Most Searched People of 2025.”
Authorities accuse Michele Spagnuolo of making bets on Google search data involving D4vd
He is also alleged to have voted “yes” in a poll for “Will d4vd be the #1 searched person on Google this year.” Notably, TMZ reports that Polymarket’s prediction mechanism had “assigned a near-zero probability” for this. However, things changed, according to government investigators. They claim that Google’s internal Year in Search data showed D4vd replacing Kendrick Lamar as Google’s most searched person of 2025.
Authorities have accused Spagnuolo of having seen this info and using it to make a wager under $1,000. Federal prosecutors claim this bet allowed him to land a $1.2 million win on his Google Year in Search 2025-related bets.
Next, prosecutors allege that Spagnuolo “took deliberate steps to conceal his unlawful use of nonpublic information by attempting to obscure the source and ownership of his unlawful proceeds.”
At this time, Michele Spagnuolo is out of jail on bond
Authorities arrested Spagnuolo on Wednesday (May 27) and charged him with multiple crimes: money laundering, commodities fraud, and wire fraud. He appeared before a federal magistrate judge, but did not enter a plea. Spagnuolo has since been released on a $2.25 million bond.
As for D4vd, he remains behind bars. The singer was allegedly involved in the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in April 2025. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
The post D4vd Alleged Murder Case: Police Arrest Google Employee Accused of Winning $1M Bet Related To Imprisoned Singer appeared first on VICE.
