Slashdot Mirror
Former Goldman Sachs Programmer Arrested and Charged Again For Code Theft
hypnosec writes with news that Sergey Aleynikov, once a programmer for Goldman Sachs, has been arrested and charged again for stealing code from his employer in 2009. Aleynikov was originally charged for the crime in 2009. He was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to 97 months in prison, but an appeals court overturned the verdict, saying the corporate espionage laws were misapplied. Manhattan District Attorney Cryus Vance said, "This code is so highly confidential that it is known in the industry as the firm's 'secret sauce.' Employees who exploit their access to sensitive information should expect to face criminal prosecution in New York State in appropriate cases." The Fifth Amendment's "double jeopardy" clause is unlikely to stop this case because it's within a different jurisdiction — the earlier trial was in federal court, and this one is in New York State court.
"I'll take Undermining the Bill of Rights for $500 Alex"
I don't think so. However, perhaps the defense is allowed to ask the following question during Voir Dire:
"Did you view any news coverage of the federal prosecution of my client for the exact same offense? If so, did you view any news coverage of a federal appellate judge throwing out the charges on the ground that the law did not apply in this case?"
We don't want a biased jury, after all.
While the government protects the preferred banks, gives them infinite credit, while destroying the currency, the person who is punished is a guy that 'stole' some source code.
While the banks are using the infinite credit and fake insurance by the government to pump one credit bubble after another, from stocks, to house prices, to bonds and dollars themselves, the person who gets busted is somebody who doesn't have anything to do with any financial transactions.
The lesson is - if you steal, steal huge and make sure that you have strong government protection and cover. Actually be the government, that's the best way to steal. Have ties to all the governments in the world, finance wars and government debt by using central credit from the central banks. In fact just steal individual customer funds, if you are somebody like Corzine.
But if you are a schmuck who decides to steal pencils from the bank, you are going to be made example of.
You can't handle the truth.
Feds walk away from prosecuting Goldman, SEC misses Madoff, but this guy needs to be prosecuted - twice!
That's the way it works in our plutocracy. The big fish get away scot free with the little guys get it up the ass.
Run up billions of dollars in debt and can't pay it back? The government steps in, covers it, pay yourself a big bonus, and everyone pats you on the back for being a financial whiz and a "job creator".
In the meantime, a peon who does the right thing and gets educated and pays with student loans is stuck with them for life unless he pays them back - no free ride like the plutocrats get. And to add insult to injury, you have some very ignorant people who think that only folks who majored in liberal or fine arts have that problem and that they deserved what they got - not true, BTW, folks with nursing, accounting, CS and engineering degrees are also having horrible times. Or they accuse those folks of going to expensive private schools - which isn't always true either considering state schools are quite pricey themselves.
And to anyone who posts that they worked 2 jobs, held a 3.0+ GPA and graduated in 4 years with a CS or engineering degree without any debt, I call bullshit. I will never beleive that.
Anyone who defends this system is either in on it or has this illusion that they can with enough "hard work", some "risk taking" and some "brains" that they to can join the 1%; you'll have a better luck winning the lottery.
What he should have done is put it in bittorrent in an encrypted file, and blurted the word out in the trial.
How is this not blackmail?
what the AC proposed as what he should have done is indeed blackmail.
But, would anything else work with Goldman Sachs?
The secret sauce isn't probably that secret even, it's just that if it was out in the wild it would be a liability - you see, on paper it's valued on their sheets in millions if not in hundreds of millions as an asset.. that they can then borrow money against.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.