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Anyone know what happened to Sergey Aleynikov (Goldman Sachs)? That kind of story doesn't help my (already) poor perception of these financial companies. https

by kelvin0 10y ago

Anyone know what happened to Sergey Aleynikov (Goldman Sachs)? That kind of story doesn't help my (already) poor perception of these financial companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Aleynikov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Aleynikov "Aleynikov was employed for two years, from May 2007 to June 2009, at Goldman at an ultimate salary of $400,000.[4][8] He left to join Teza Technologies, a competing high-frequency trading firm which offered to triple his pay"

atemerev 10y ago
Yep. He took all his high-frequency trading code (written while working at Goldman Sachs) with him. While this should have probably been handled out of court, I understand why GS guys were pissed. Don't do that.
- kelvin0 10y ago
  So you have any more details? Is it clear cut he did indeed 'steal' anything? I'd be interested in any facts you have regarding this interesting turn of events.
  - atemerev 10y ago
    He probably didn't consider taking the code that he himself wrote a stealing. However, GS saw it differently. Source: any article about his case.
    - barrkel 10y ago
      The articles I read about the case were about contributions to an open source library.
      - atemerev 10y ago
        This was his defense. I don't know exactly what code he took, of course. Here's what known: - GS cites "500 million lines of code". This is most certainly including all dependencies (I deal with HFT systems and usually they are not _that_ complicated), so it is probably correct that 99% of the code was indeed open source. - He uploaded the tarball with the code to his "server in Germany" (Hetzner, I presume). Sounds scary to the judges, but of course, having a server at Hetzner is perfectly normal. - He deleted .bash_history. Quite a red flag for me. And anyway, why repack and upload open source code as a tarball? BTW, here's what Goldman Sachs published on Github: https://github.com/goldmansachs https://github.com/goldmansachs (GS Collections are well-known, but not a lot of code expected from a big company).
        tomrod 10y ago
        Oh wow, I didn't realize he deleted his bash history. That's a HUGE red flag in my eyes!
        chrisbennet 10y ago
        "And then he did what he had always done since he first started programming computers: he deleted his bash history. To access the computer he was required to type his password. If he didn’t delete his bash history, his password would be there to see, for anyone who had access to the system." http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-sachs-programmer http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman...
hfsktr 10y ago
The scary part to me is that he spent time in prison, had to use his savings to pay for a lawyer because he couldn't work, and even though acquitted to anybody who doesn't read all the details it looks the same way as not being acquitted. I can easily imagine that similar situations happen but for people without enough savings to keep going and even then they may not have as high a profile to have their reputation overshadow the headlines. I feel like I am just shy of tinfoil hat territory but it's not the craziest thing I have ever though of.
- __derek__ 10y ago
  Yes, that is very much a thing and not at all uncommon.[1] Also, since you mentioned "tinfoil hat territory," I feel compelled to share this piece from MTV News about how many white conspiracies are history for black people.[2] [1]: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ [2]: http://www.mtv.com/news/2914420/white-conspiracy-black-history/ http://www.mtv.com/news/2914420/white-conspiracy-black-histo...
- ArkyBeagle 10y ago
  He really messed up bad, though. You simply don't take code with you when you leave, especially not at a finance firm. They will not understand the subtleties.

by kelvin0 10y ago

atemerev 10y ago

Yep. He took all his high-frequency trading code (written while working at Goldman Sachs) with him. While this should have probably been handled out of court, I understand why GS guys were pissed. Don't do that.

kelvin0 10y ago
So you have any more details? Is it clear cut he did indeed 'steal' anything? I'd be interested in any facts you have regarding this interesting turn of events.
- atemerev 10y ago
  He probably didn't consider taking the code that he himself wrote a stealing. However, GS saw it differently. Source: any article about his case.
  - barrkel 10y ago
    The articles I read about the case were about contributions to an open source library.
    - atemerev 10y ago
      This was his defense. I don't know exactly what code he took, of course. Here's what known: - GS cites "500 million lines of code". This is most certainly including all dependencies (I deal with HFT systems and usually they are not _that_ complicated), so it is probably correct that 99% of the code was indeed open source. - He uploaded the tarball with the code to his "server in Germany" (Hetzner, I presume). Sounds scary to the judges, but of course, having a server at Hetzner is perfectly normal. - He deleted .bash_history. Quite a red flag for me. And anyway, why repack and upload open source code as a tarball? BTW, here's what Goldman Sachs published on Github: https://github.com/goldmansachs https://github.com/goldmansachs (GS Collections are well-known, but not a lot of code expected from a big company).
      - tomrod 10y ago
        Oh wow, I didn't realize he deleted his bash history. That's a HUGE red flag in my eyes!
      - chrisbennet 10y ago
        "And then he did what he had always done since he first started programming computers: he deleted his bash history. To access the computer he was required to type his password. If he didn’t delete his bash history, his password would be there to see, for anyone who had access to the system." http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-sachs-programmer http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman...

hfsktr 10y ago

The scary part to me is that he spent time in prison, had to use his savings to pay for a lawyer because he couldn't work, and even though acquitted to anybody who doesn't read all the details it looks the same way as not being acquitted. I can easily imagine that similar situations happen but for people without enough savings to keep going and even then they may not have as high a profile to have their reputation overshadow the headlines. I feel like I am just shy of tinfoil hat territory but it's not the craziest thing I have ever though of.

__derek__ 10y ago
Yes, that is very much a thing and not at all uncommon.[1] Also, since you mentioned "tinfoil hat territory," I feel compelled to share this piece from MTV News about how many white conspiracies are history for black people.[2] [1]: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ [2]: http://www.mtv.com/news/2914420/white-conspiracy-black-history/ http://www.mtv.com/news/2914420/white-conspiracy-black-histo...
ArkyBeagle 10y ago
He really messed up bad, though. You simply don't take code with you when you leave, especially not at a finance firm. They will not understand the subtleties.