Thirty-six-year-old Italian Spagnuolo living in Switzerland won the most money with a successful bet on the American singer D4vda. He bet on him on November 27, when the markets gave him almost zero chance that he could appear at the top of the list of the most wanted people of 2025 a week later, and Spagnuolo’s bet was all the more profitable.
The relatively obscure singer reached the top of the list of the most wanted persons after he was arrested and charged with the murder of a minor girl whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of his car, the BBC reminds.
Back in October, Spagnuolo bet on rapper Kendrick Lamar through an account called “AlphaRaccoon”. Even this bet indicates that he did so on the basis of Google’s internal data, because exactly this result was predicted by the company at the time.
The lawsuit against Spagnuolo was filed in Manhattan. The local federal prosecutor, Jay Clayton, said that the American justice system will step on all those who abuse secret business data for their own profit on prediction markets, such as Polymarket.
“Insider abuse compromises the integrity of our markets, and the American people want this greed-driven behavior investigated and punished,” Clayton said.
Already in April, the federal prosecutor’s office indicted a soldier who, based on secret information, bet on the planned capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The current US conflict with Iran is also accompanied by a number of suspicious bets on the prediction markets.
The company Google stated that it cooperates with the American investigation and described the misuse of secret information for betting as a serious violation of company rules. According to the company’s spokesperson, Spagnuolo was temporarily relieved of his duties.
