Free Republic

For the second time in five years, Sergey Aleynikov was convicted on charges of stealing confidential computer trading code from his former employer, Goldman Sachs. The first time it took a federal jury just hours to convict; this time it came after more than a week of deliberation and an accusation of “food poisoning” and avocado tampering in a state court jury room. A jury on Friday convicted Mr. Aleynikov on one of the counts he faced but found him not guilty on another. They deadlocked on a third count against Mr. Aleynikov, who smiled nervously after the decision was...

Flying home to New Jersey from Chicago after the first two days at his new job, Sergey Aleynikov was prepared for the usual inconveniences: a bumpy ride, a late arrival. He was not expecting Special Agent Michael G. McSwain of the F.B.I. At 9:20 p.m. on July 3, Mr. McSwain arrested Mr. Aleynikov, 39, at Newark Liberty Airport, accusing him of stealing software code from Goldman Sachs, his old employer. At a bail hearing three days later, a federal prosecutor asked that Mr. Aleynikov be held without bond because the code could be used to “unfairly manipulate” stock prices.

Sergey Aleynikov has conviction dismissed out of hand by appeal judges after serving a year for copying trading software A former Goldman Sachs computer programmer has been freed from prison after a surprise ruling from a federal appeals court quashed his conviction for stealing computer code. "Justice occasionally works," said Russian-born Sergey Aleynikov, who walked free after serving one year out of a sentence of eight years or more. Aleynikov, a naturalised US citizen who emigrated from Russia in 1990, was first arrested in July 2009 as he returned from a trip to Chicago to the offices of his new...