Ex-Goldman Programmer Aleynikov Declared Flight Risk, Returned to Custody
Former Goldman Sachs Programmer Sergey Aleynikov
Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Sergey Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. computer programmer, leaves federal court in New York.
Sergey Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. computer programmer, leaves federal court in New York. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg
Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) programmer convicted of stealing the firm’s trade secrets by appropriating computer source code, was returned to custody after a judge declared him a flight risk.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan revoked the bail of Aleynikov, 41, and ordered him remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service on Feb. 24, court records show. The defense has appealed the ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
Aleynikov, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Russia, was convicted in December of theft of trade secrets and transportation of stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce. Set for sentencing March 18, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, according to the office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
“The government has abiding concerns about the risk of the defendant’s flight, in light of new information about the defendant’s family circumstances,” the U.S. Attorney said in a letter to the judge dated Feb. 23. “The defendant reportedly has a close relationship with his mother, who plans to return to Russia.”
In the appeal of the bail revocation, Kevin Marino, a lawyer representing Aleynikov, said “the record reflects clear and convincing evidence that Aleynikov is not a risk of flight.”
The bail revocation was reported earlier by the New York Times.
Computer Code
Aleynikov was employed by New York-based Goldman for two years developing computer code for its high-frequency trading business. He resigned in June 2009 to work for Teza Technologies LLC, a Chicago-based trading firm, according to court documents.
On his last day at Goldman, Aleynikov transferred “substantial portions” of proprietary code from Goldman’s computer network to an outside server in Germany, prosecutors said. Later at home in New Jersey he downloaded the source code files to his home computer, according to the indictment.
His annual compensation at Goldman was about $400,000, court filings show. Teza offered him a salary, bonus and profit- sharing that totaled more than $1 million a year, according to the indictment.
He had been released on $750,000 bond. Following his conviction he was subject to home detention with electronic monitoring.
The case is U.S. v. Aleynikov, 10-00096, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Donald Jeffrey in New York at djeffrey1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net
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