by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 13 – On May 27 DOJ announced “the unsealing of a complaint charging MICHELE SPAGNUOLO, a/k/a ‘AlphaRaccoon,; a software engineer at Google, with commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering arising from his scheme to misappropriate confidential information from his employer and use that information to place a series of profitable Google-related trades on a prediction market platform.”
The platform, as in another recent SDNY case, was Polymarket.
On May 29 for Spagmuolo a notice of appearance filed by Shawn Crowley, who we’ve previously covered representing E. Jean Carroll and the witness known as Mia in the US v. Sean Combs. That was pro bono; this is retained.
On July 13 the assigned District Analisa Torres held a conference, Inner City Press live tweeted:
All rise! Judge: How much discovery is there?
AUSA: Social media accounts and information from Google, the victim in this case.
Judge: Defense, how much time to review?
Defense: What he described, not long. But we just handed him a letter requesting much more info. We contend these bets are not swaps
Judge: So you will be making a motion to dismiss that count? Defense: Yes. See US v. Chastain, OpenSea - it stands for that the alleged MNPI info has to be commercially valuable.
Defense: The US does not regulate Polymarket. We are doing to make a motion to dismiss. I don’t believe there were any search warrants. Mr. Spagnuolo is an Italian citizen living in Switzerland [He is here today, with three lawyers]
Judge: Meet and confer and propose a motion schedule. AUSA: We have a proposed schedule - they want 30 days to file motions. We request three weeks, then they two weeks to reply. These bets ARE swaps, he traded with Americans, Para 2 shows the value
AUSA: Under a warrant we found his racoon T-shirt, I suspect they will try to move to suppress that. We will be ready to propose a trial date. Judge: Aug 12 for Defense motions, their reply by Sept 16. You can propose trial dates in a letter. I exclude time
Defense: We are ready for trial. Mr. Spagnuolo is here, separated from his family. But we need to investigate and litigate and work with experts. Mr. Spagnuolo entered the US on a tourist visa, he was on vacation when arrested. His status has been changed
Defense: We raise this because, God forbid, he gets picked up. AUSA: His immigration status is limited. So the trial shoudl begin soon. Judge: I don’t know anything about this change in status. It’s only fair if he’s being prosecuted here, no ICE
AUSA: That’s outside the control of the people at this table. Judge: But is IS the Executive Branch. If he should be apprehended, you may apply to me immediately. Defense: Thank you.
Next is Oct 5, 9 am.
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