Who is Michele Spagnuolo? Google employee reportedly arrested for insider trading with information about D4vd’s alleged murder case

Court Arraignment Of Singer D4vd Charged With Capital Murder - Source: Getty
d4vd looks on during his arraignment for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on April 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Nathan J. Hochman, Los Angeles County District Attorney, announced earlier in the day that David Anthony Burke, known as d4vd, was charged with the first-degree murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found decomposed in his car. (Photo by Ted Soqui - Pool/Getty Images)

D4vd was arrested on the charge of allegedly murdering Celeste Rivas on April 16, 2026 and formally charged with the first degree murder of Rivas, among other charges. The preliminary hearing on the singer's case was pushed back to June 29, 2026 after a hearing on May 12, 2026.

Now there is a new case related to D4vd's alleged murder case. A Google employee was reportedly arrested for insider trading with confidential information obtained from his access to internal software and data, including bets regarding D4vd.

Michele Spagnuolo is an Italian citizen who lived in Switzerland. He is 36 years old and works as a software engineer for Google.

Spagnuolo is accused of using his position within the company to obtain confidential information and use it in trades on the prediction market platform, Polymarket.

Spagnuolo allegedly used an account named AlphaRaccoon on Polymarket to place the bets, starting from October 2025. As per the unsealed federal complaint, Spagnuolo is being charged with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. All three charges are one counts each.

Google is working with law enforcement on the investigation, as per the company's spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez's statement to WIRED:

"We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action."

Spagnuolo's alleged bets on D4vd being the 'most searched person on Google in 2025'

The complaint, written by FBI Special Agent Brandon Racz, provides a detailed overview of Spagnuolo's usage of the insider information for his trading on Polymarket. In the case of his bet regarding D4vd, the specific bet was that D4vd would be within the 'Top 5 Most Searched People of 2025' on Google, as well as another subsequent bet on whether or not the rapper would be the number one searched person on the search engine in 2025:

"On or about November 27, 2025, at approximately 21:27 PM UTC, SPAGNUOLO again accessed Google’s confidential Year in Search 2025 data. By this time, Google’s internal Year in Search data reflected that “d4vd” had replaced Kendrick Lamar as the “#1 searched person on Google” for 2025."

Brandon Racz continues detailing the alleged insider trading on the rapper conducted by Spagnuolo:

"Approximately three hours later, SPAGNUOLO used the AlphaRaccoon account on Polymarket to wager approximately $381.12 on the “YES” side of “Will d4vd rank in Google’s Top 5 Most Searched People of 2025,” at average implied odds of approximately 18%."

The second alleged bet on whether or not the rapper would be the number one searched person on the search engine in 2025 is also detailed:

"Later that same day, SPAGNUOLO’s AlphaRaccoon account wagered approximately $5 on the “YES” side of “Will d4vd be the #1 searched person on Google this year,” at average implied probability of only slightly higher than 0%."

The complaint also details Spagnuolo making bets on Kendrick Lamar, Bianco Censori and Pope Leo XIV in relation to bets on the most searched person on the platform.

Raez concludes the section by detailing the $1.2 million profit Spagnuolo allegedly earned from the above mentioned bets:

"Google officially and publicly announced its Year in Search 2025 results on or about December 4, 2025. Soon after it did so, SPAGNUOLO’s AlphaRaccoon account, profited approximately $1.2 million on his Google Year in Search 2025-related bets."

Spagnuolo was arrested on May 27, 2026. He was subsequently released on a $2.25 million bond, as per TMZ. Spagnuolo has been a Google employee since 2014.

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Edited by Soumyajyoti Mukherjee