| Title | Former Goldman Sachs Programmer Convicted of Stealing Code in Second Trial | |
| Date | Monday May 04 2015, @12:15PM | |
| Author | takyon | |
| Topic | ||
| from the invaluable-economic-activity dept. | ||
Former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov, one of the central figures in the high-frequency trading exposé Flash Boys, has been found guilty on one count of "unlawful use of secret scientific material" for "stealing" high-speed trading code from Goldman Sachs. He was acquitted of "unlawful duplication of computer related material," and another "secret scientific material" charge may be dismissed by mid-June. He may face between one-and-a-half and four years in prison, although there is no mandatory minimum for the charge, and the judge has indicated that he is likely to be lenient.
"Aleynikov left Goldman Sachs in 2009 for a high-speed trading startup and was arrested by the FBI after he was caught downloading a copy of the firm's code to his home computer." Aleynikov's first trial resulted in a sentence of 97 months in prison for two counts of theft of trade secrets, but the conviction was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. This time around, the State of New York charged Aleynikov. "Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance called the source code that Aleynikov had copied [Goldman Sachs'] 'secret sauce'."
The case almost ended up in a mistrial due to a dispute between two jurors which led to their dismissal. One juror accused another of "food tampering" because an avocado was missing from her sandwich, and said she took a blood test to determine whether she had been poisoned. The judge called the accusations "completely unfounded," and Aleynikov's lawyer agreed to drop a request for a mistrial and proceed with a 10-member jury. Aleynikov's lawyer has until May 15 to file a motion for dismissal.
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