Judge nixes jury conviction of ex-Goldman Sachs programmer, calls law a bad fit in source-code case
A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. programmer committed a crime by taking computer code for a high-speed trading program with him when he left the investment bank for a new job, prosecutors insist.
But they didn’t prove their case against Sergey Aleynikov, 45, because the facts of the case don’t fit applicable criminal law, a New York judge ruled Monday. The unusual post-trial decision reverses the portion of a split jury verdict that favored the government.
The New York Times’ Bloomberg and the DealBook blog (reg. req.) have stories.
In addition to convicting Aleynikov on one count of unlawful use of secret scientific material, the jury also acquitted him of unlawful duplication of computer-related material and deadlocked on a third count involving the same law as the first count.
The decision follows an earlier federal criminal case against Aleynikov concerning the same conduct in which he was also initially convicted. In that case, a federal appeals court axed the conviction after Aleynikov had spent a year in prison, also finding that his conduct wasn’t criminal under applicable law.
“We update our criminal law in this country … through the legislative process. Defendants cannot be convicted of crimes because we believe as a matter of policy that their conduct warrants prosecution,” wrote Justice Daniel Conviser, who oversaw the trial in the New York Supreme Court case.
Aleynikov’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, says his client has racked up $7 million in defense costs and called for the district attorney’s office to drop the case.
A spokeswoman for Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said the office hasn’t yet decided whether to appeal the decision by Conviser.
“We think this defendant committed a crime,” spokeswoman Joan Vollero wrote in an email to Bloomberg. “If what Sergey Aleynikov did isn’t a crime, then every company that values its intellectual property should be concerned.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Still battling code-theft case, former Goldman Sachs programmer sues bank for legal fees”
