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Continuing the story from his Wiki page: In March 2011, Aleynikov appealed the conviction, asking the Second Circuit to review the District Court's decision de

Continuing the story from his Wiki page: In March 2011, Aleynikov appealed the conviction, asking the Second Circuit to review the District Court's decision denying his original motion to dismiss the indictment for failure to state a claim.[9] On February 16, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard oral argument on his appeal and, later that same day, unanimously ordered his conviction reversed and a judgment of acquittal entered, with opinion to follow.[10] Aleynikov was released from custody the next day. On April 11, 2012, Dennis Jacobs, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals, published a unanimous decision in a written opinion[10] stating: On appeal, Aleynikov argues, inter alia, that his conduct did not constitute an offense under either statute. He argues that: [1] the source code was not a "stolen" "good" within the meaning of the NSPA, and [2] the source code was not “related to or included in a product that is produced for or placed in interstate or foreign commerce” within the meaning of the EEA. We agree, and reverse the judgment of the district court.[9] In the course of these events, Aleynikov has spent 11 months in prison. Aleynikov has divorced, lost his savings, and his career is ruined.[11] The government did not seek reconsideration of the Second Circuit's ruling, thus ending federal action against Aleynikov.[12]

dm2 13y ago
I'm guessing that there isn't any legal recourse (monetary) for him from Goldman Sachs and the FBI ruining his life. Should there be? Goldman Sachs had every right to request that he be prosecuted, but no matter how the case turned out, his life would be ruined. I don't know of a good solution to this issue, but it just seems very wrong. I'm sure there have been countless instances of this happening though. Maybe a good solution would be to lessen the penalties for this type of crime. Maybe a legal requirement for a public apology and for the prosecutor to have to pay back legal costs? A portion of this restitution should come out of that courts budget or the department that perused the case without doing their due diligence. Did Sergey sign something saying that he could never remove code from the building or use it in another project? I'm not sure that it simply being company policy is enough, in my opinion. Has anyone here ever taken code from one employer with the intent of using it again if needed, simply to save time and not having to duplicate research? Should you be considered a criminal for that? Should you have to pay back the time the company paid you to write that code? It seems like the lessons are: 1) Don't talk to police, even if you did nothing wrong and they tell you they are on your side. Lawyer up. 2) Don't steal code, but if you do then encrypt it and put it on a portable media device. Uploading to a foreign SVN repository using the companies network wasn't very smart, don't do that. 3) Ensure that your employees know the company's policy on removing code from the premises. It seems pretty obvious but I believe that Sergey honestly didn't think he was doing anything wrong.
- karmajunkie 13y ago
  Should there be recourse for facilitating malicious prosecution? It's a travesty if there isn't.
  - emn13 13y ago
    Travesty it is.
- pmorici 13y ago
  If there are no consequences to wrongly prosecuting someone just to hassle them then wouldn't that encourage people like Goldman Sachs to use that tool to extract revenge on people?
  - rdtsc 13y ago
    Yes it would. If there are no repercussions this will happen again. I guess he can sue them in civil court but does he have the money for the lawyer? Does he have a chance?
    - dm2 13y ago
      Sergey did technically break the law (or so they reasonably thought) by taking company code with the intention of using it after he left the company. I think the real issue is whether or not he was acting maliciously, what the damage to Goldman Sachs was (basically none), and whether or not the punishment fit the crime. Maybe companies should be forced to have an exit interview for programmers with access to information the company deems sensitive and make sure the programmer knows that they are not allowed to take any code with them.
      - rdtsc 13y ago
        It seems GS replaced license headers from files with their own license. Painting with broad brush strokes here, is stealing from a thief still stealing?
revelation 13y ago
And of course, continuing continuing: On August 9, 2012, Aleynikov was re-arrested and charged by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr.[14] on behalf of New York state, with the offenses of "unlawful use of secret scientific material" and "unlawful duplication of computer related material"[15] based on the same conduct. The state prosecution was initiated based on a signed complaint by the same federal agent, McSwain, who led the investigation of the failed federal prosecution. [..] [..] and rejected the prosecutors' plea offer of accepting a single count offense and serving no jail time. -- If that isn't malicious, I don't know what is. Charging someone acquitted for the same conduct, only to then offer him a plea deal of no prison time? What is the point here?
- dm2 13y ago
  How did he lose the motion to dismiss because of double jeopardy? He's even already served time in prison.
  - ntakasaki 13y ago
    On April 5, 2013, Aleynikov lost his motion to dismiss based on double jeopardy. In rendering the decision, New York State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel stated that Aleynikov's acquittal in federal court only precluded the federal government from retrying Aleynikov. The state of New York, as a separate sovereign, could continue pursuing charges against Aleynikov.
    - dm2 13y ago
      Ah, I had read that but didn't understand it at first. That seems wrong (unfair) that the state can go after someone for a crime after the federal government has already acquitted that person of the same crime.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
        It's not exactly the same crime. The appeals court basically said he didn't violate any Federal statutes. However it's very likely that he violated New York statutes (taking the property of a New York corporation). IOW: don't try to take the code your employer paid you to write/modify and use it at another job.
Dolimiter 13y ago
Just a clarification: Goldman Sachs didn't "jail" this person. Goldman Sachs is a corporation, and therefore doesn't prosecute nor jail people. Please leave this nonsense on Reddit.
- patrickk 13y ago
  They didn't jail him, however they provided the impetus to the FBI to arrest him. Quotes from the book, p.148 (EDIT: These quotes are in the article here also!!): "What Serge did not yet know was that Goldman has discovered his downloads- of what appeared to be the code they used for their proprietary high speed trading stock market trading- just a few days earlier, even though Serge had sent himself the first batch of code months ago. They'd called the FBI in haste and had put McSwain [FBI agent who arrested Serge] through what amounted to a crash course in high-frequency trading and computer programming. McSwain later concluded that he didn't seek out independent expert advice to study the code that Serge Aleynikov had taken, or seek to find out why he might have taken it. "I relied on statements from Goldman employees", he said. He had no idea himself of the value of the stolen code ("representatives of Goldman told me it was worth a lot of money"),or if any of it was actually all that special ("representatives of Goldman told us there were trade secrets in the code")." "The FBI's investigation before the arrest consisted of Goldman explaining some extremely complicated stuff to McSwain that he admitted that he didn't fully understand- but trusted that Goldman did. Forty-eight hours after Goldman called the FBI, McSwain arrested Serge." So effectively Goldman got Serge arrested, using a clueless agent as a pawn. Some of the code was originally open source, none of the code involved trading strategies (the really valuable stuff) and Goldman's word was enough to convince the FBI that Serge was a dangerous criminal and a flight risk, and ruined his life.
  - dm2 13y ago
    So basically there should have been several unbiased experts brought in before he was arrested to determine if the code truly contained any trade secrets?
    - patrickk 13y ago
pessimizer 13y ago
His career definitely isn't ruined. He's well liked, well respected, and computer literate people generally saw these charges as incoherent.

dm2 13y ago

I'm guessing that there isn't any legal recourse (monetary) for him from Goldman Sachs and the FBI ruining his life. Should there be? Goldman Sachs had every right to request that he be prosecuted, but no matter how the case turned out, his life would be ruined. I don't know of a good solution to this issue, but it just seems very wrong. I'm sure there have been countless instances of this happening though. Maybe a good solution would be to lessen the penalties for this type of crime. Maybe a legal requirement for a public apology and for the prosecutor to have to pay back legal costs? A portion of this restitution should come out of that courts budget or the department that perused the case without doing their due diligence. Did Sergey sign something saying that he could never remove code from the building or use it in another project? I'm not sure that it simply being company policy is enough, in my opinion. Has anyone here ever taken code from one employer with the intent of using it again if needed, simply to save time and not having to duplicate research? Should you be considered a criminal for that? Should you have to pay back the time the company paid you to write that code? It seems like the lessons are: 1) Don't talk to police, even if you did nothing wrong and they tell you they are on your side. Lawyer up. 2) Don't steal code, but if you do then encrypt it and put it on a portable media device. Uploading to a foreign SVN repository using the companies network wasn't very smart, don't do that. 3) Ensure that your employees know the company's policy on removing code from the premises. It seems pretty obvious but I believe that Sergey honestly didn't think he was doing anything wrong.

karmajunkie 13y ago
Should there be recourse for facilitating malicious prosecution? It's a travesty if there isn't.
- emn13 13y ago
  Travesty it is.
pmorici 13y ago
If there are no consequences to wrongly prosecuting someone just to hassle them then wouldn't that encourage people like Goldman Sachs to use that tool to extract revenge on people?
- rdtsc 13y ago
  Yes it would. If there are no repercussions this will happen again. I guess he can sue them in civil court but does he have the money for the lawyer? Does he have a chance?
  - dm2 13y ago
    Sergey did technically break the law (or so they reasonably thought) by taking company code with the intention of using it after he left the company. I think the real issue is whether or not he was acting maliciously, what the damage to Goldman Sachs was (basically none), and whether or not the punishment fit the crime. Maybe companies should be forced to have an exit interview for programmers with access to information the company deems sensitive and make sure the programmer knows that they are not allowed to take any code with them.
    - rdtsc 13y ago
      It seems GS replaced license headers from files with their own license. Painting with broad brush strokes here, is stealing from a thief still stealing?

revelation 13y ago

And of course, continuing continuing: On August 9, 2012, Aleynikov was re-arrested and charged by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr.[14] on behalf of New York state, with the offenses of "unlawful use of secret scientific material" and "unlawful duplication of computer related material"[15] based on the same conduct. The state prosecution was initiated based on a signed complaint by the same federal agent, McSwain, who led the investigation of the failed federal prosecution. [..] [..] and rejected the prosecutors' plea offer of accepting a single count offense and serving no jail time. -- If that isn't malicious, I don't know what is. Charging someone acquitted for the same conduct, only to then offer him a plea deal of no prison time? What is the point here?

dm2 13y ago
How did he lose the motion to dismiss because of double jeopardy? He's even already served time in prison.
- ntakasaki 13y ago
  On April 5, 2013, Aleynikov lost his motion to dismiss based on double jeopardy. In rendering the decision, New York State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel stated that Aleynikov's acquittal in federal court only precluded the federal government from retrying Aleynikov. The state of New York, as a separate sovereign, could continue pursuing charges against Aleynikov.
  - dm2 13y ago
    Ah, I had read that but didn't understand it at first. That seems wrong (unfair) that the state can go after someone for a crime after the federal government has already acquitted that person of the same crime.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
      It's not exactly the same crime. The appeals court basically said he didn't violate any Federal statutes. However it's very likely that he violated New York statutes (taking the property of a New York corporation). IOW: don't try to take the code your employer paid you to write/modify and use it at another job.

Dolimiter 13y ago

Just a clarification: Goldman Sachs didn't "jail" this person. Goldman Sachs is a corporation, and therefore doesn't prosecute nor jail people. Please leave this nonsense on Reddit.

patrickk 13y ago
They didn't jail him, however they provided the impetus to the FBI to arrest him. Quotes from the book, p.148 (EDIT: These quotes are in the article here also!!): "What Serge did not yet know was that Goldman has discovered his downloads- of what appeared to be the code they used for their proprietary high speed trading stock market trading- just a few days earlier, even though Serge had sent himself the first batch of code months ago. They'd called the FBI in haste and had put McSwain [FBI agent who arrested Serge] through what amounted to a crash course in high-frequency trading and computer programming. McSwain later concluded that he didn't seek out independent expert advice to study the code that Serge Aleynikov had taken, or seek to find out why he might have taken it. "I relied on statements from Goldman employees", he said. He had no idea himself of the value of the stolen code ("representatives of Goldman told me it was worth a lot of money"),or if any of it was actually all that special ("representatives of Goldman told us there were trade secrets in the code")." "The FBI's investigation before the arrest consisted of Goldman explaining some extremely complicated stuff to McSwain that he admitted that he didn't fully understand- but trusted that Goldman did. Forty-eight hours after Goldman called the FBI, McSwain arrested Serge." So effectively Goldman got Serge arrested, using a clueless agent as a pawn. Some of the code was originally open source, none of the code involved trading strategies (the really valuable stuff) and Goldman's word was enough to convince the FBI that Serge was a dangerous criminal and a flight risk, and ruined his life.
- dm2 13y ago
  So basically there should have been several unbiased experts brought in before he was arrested to determine if the code truly contained any trade secrets?
  - patrickk 13y ago

pessimizer 13y ago

His career definitely isn't ruined. He's well liked, well respected, and computer literate people generally saw these charges as incoherent.