Programmer guilty of stealing trading code

A New York jury found Sergey Aleynikov guilty of theft of trade secrets and transportation of stolen property, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Aleynikov faces as much as 10 years in prison on the trade secrets charge, the newspaper said.

The trial focused on the complex computer programs investment banks, hedge funds and other securities firms use to maximize profits from their trading operations through almost-instant buy and sell orders intended to capitalize on minuscule differences in price.

After the verdict U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ordered Aleynikov to home confinement pending sentencing and also suggested his name be added to a watch list to prevent Aleynikov, originally from Russia, from leaving the country.

Federal prosecutors had alleged Aleynikov illegally copied Goldman Sachs's confidential source code for its high-frequency trading platform in his last days at the bank and uploaded it to a server in Germany, intending to use it to build a similar trading platform for his new employer, Teza Technologies LLC.

"He absolutely knew he was taking Goldman Sachs's trading secrets ... and he planned to use them for his own benefit," Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Rohr said.

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