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Judge Dismisses Charges Against Sergey Aleynikov
In a victory for open source software and more importantly, for common sense, a judge has thrown out the charges against Sergey Aleynikov, the ex-Goldmanite of Flash Boys fame who was tragically thrown in front of a kangaroo court after 'stealing' some open source code on his way out the door at 200 Wall.
- FLASH BOYS’ PROGRAMMER IN GOLDMAN THEFT HAS CHARGES TOSSED OUT
As a reminder, the 'theft' was essentially inconsequential and amounted to what Michael Lewis likened to the programmer equivalent of someone taking their notebook with them after their last day on the job.
Nevertheless, Aleynikov was arrested and tried by a court that hadn't the faintest conception of HFT or of programming in general.
Aleynikov wins. Judge dismisses
— Matthew Goldstein (@MattGoldstein26) July 6, 2015
Courthouse victory celebration. pic.twitter.com/r2DgaHJ5C9
— Matthew Goldstein (@MattGoldstein26) July 6, 2015
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What?? Just because he isn't Indian?
Alright, get an Indian then...
Preferrably one that still lives in his Mother's basement.
Stay away from nail guns and helicopters bro
In a 71-page opinion, Justice Ronald A. Zweibel of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled that the F.B.I. “did not have probable cause to arrest defendant, let alone search him or his home.” The arrest was “illegal,” Justice Zweibel wrote, and Mr. Aleynikov’s “Fourth Amendment rights were violated as a result of a mistake of law.”
What he didnt write was "No one at the FBI will be charged for illegally arresting the defendant, gross misconduct, or negligence at this time. Rules are for thee, not for me."
In Aleynikov's Motion to Dismiss Indictment his attorneys argued that Aleynikov moves to inspect Goldman Sachs’s Trading System and to make such tests and inspections as necessary to aid Aleynikov’s expert witness who will be called in his defense at trial. Evidence may be made available to a criminal defendant in the discretion of the court prior to trial provided that it is “relevant, competent and outside any exclusionary rule.”
So after Goldman Sachs had Sergey illegally arrested and detained, they were in jeopardy having to reveal the code to their trading system. Therefore it was in Goldman's best interest to have the indictment thrown out rather than be compelled to reveal the contents of its "black box" trading algorithms.
Something smells very fishy here...
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/713324/aleynikov-motion-to-dismiss...
He has a solid civil suit case that should net him a healthy amount of Lollars. Hopefully he's wise enough to convert it to physical and dissappear off the radar.
The FBI was doing "God's work;" how can they be liable?
<< Therefore it was in Goldman's best interest to have the indictment thrown out rather than be compelled to reveal the contents of its "black box" trading algorithms. >>
Very common in divorce law where the wifey knows where all Hubby's skeletons are hidden so he settles for much more then it's really worth.
Kinda like spousal extortion. Very common. That's why "Rent-a-Coed" is much cheaper in the long run says my neighbor who is a divorce lawyer.
Discovery against the company is the only way to defend against this kind of abusive suit - but it's a very good defense, I'm surprised it took nearly this long, but maybe both sides knew it was just a stupid game all along.
This is just hard-ball litigation.
NEVER give the guys suing you (or prosecuting you) a free shot.
ALWAYS make them put some serious skin in the game too -- and they usually run the other way!
Goldman controls the NY courts so when you have charges thrown out on someone they wanted to scapegoat, it was because they deemed it in their best interest to do so.......now why that was is anyone's guess but being required to hand over their source code would certainly be a likely candidate.
The FBI is now open to a big civil suit and I guarantee the land sharks are lining up a big payday.....
free lord blankfirer
Free "The Honorable" Jon S. Corzine!
Wait...
Replace Lloyd Blankfein with open source software.
Probably be easy to do. Just have it phone Yellen once a week for the regular welfare check.
They could build a Disney style robot to make public appearances. How many words in its vocabulary? A hundred or so? Piece of cake.
This is very good news. In a sea of toxic bshit.
Damn...no more rants of "Free Sergey!"
Now he is just flat broke from the legal fees. Winners = Lawyers.
Over / under 2 weeks until he gets suicided?
Reason: The code would have to become part of the public record.
Wrong, Obomba would have labeled it National Security Double Jootang Secret
+1000
ZP, your comment highlights the precise reason I love ZeroHedge.
If it was open source, it is already part of the public record, in a sense.
Wrong. Don't be naive: The judge wasn't going to convict a fellow tribesman.
They decided they f(&*(*ed with him enough...
Most likely, the software details would be exposed to public. Can't have competition running amuck within the Central Planning robbery.
Don't worry, software will be exposed. Banking coders are working to offset any collateral damage. Once that is leaked, they are going to repeat cycle.
Software was already in the public domain -- that is where Goldman got it from in the first place
Michael Lewis's Vanity Fair article lays out a familiar tale: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-sachs-progr...
Federal agents, completely clueless about HFT and computer code in general, obediently follow Goldman's orders, trampling the Bill of Rights in the process. What else is new?
Lucky he didn't code out of a commune compound or a shack in the mountains. Could of been burned to death or shot in the head holding a Baby Ruth.
The FBI acted under the orders of Eric Holder, that dedicated public servant and highly principled pillar of American justice . . . after a call from Lord Bankfiend.
Quite so, the same Eric Holder, the highest law enforcement officer in the nation, who announced that a certain class of felons (Holder's banker friends, their friends, and anyone who might offer Holder a job after dot gov) would not be prosecuted for financial crimes, no matter what.
Future historians will see this as a key moment, when impunity for insiders became the officially stated policy of a corrupt, collapsing empire.
And what now? Will Goldman give him back the time he spent in jail??
Fucking cunting, disgraceful system in action right there. Fuck the guy first, ask questions later, maybe say sorry sometime.
Why isn't someone from the actual mainstream media doorstepping Blankfein or the cunt judge who convicted him? Oh that's right, because GS owns them too.
+1000
Gee, why are those lawyers grinning so much? Oh yeah, the fat civil suit they are about to make a bundle on.
Goldman own or are majority shareholders of the Bill of Rights as they control the money flow via the Central Banks.
Seton Hall? Catholic boy? Guilty!
the nazis lose another one.
Somebody forgot to buy the Judge.
Maybe they ran out of other people's money.
Point being,
If Victor meldrew can be replaced by a black box,
So can you(blankfein)
best news all weekend.
But I bet it doesn't climb the MSN headlines above the Royal Christening event, which seemed to be played all weekend to overshadow the Greek referendum vote/protests, etc.
"here Sheeple look at the shiny ball over here, no, no don't look over there, pretty things over here to see...."
Amazing how they cover the 'Royals' over here in the US. Who gives a flying fuck, about the Royal Baby? I could care-friggin-less.
As the Royals plan, it's not good.
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2015/07/04/britain-the-em...
I'm shocked, justice, and in particular for a Russian in Amerika!
Smells fisy to me, and don't think this is the last chapter.
Goldman never had a case in the first place, and they knew HFT would only remain profitable for another year or two -- they just needed to tie the programmer (and his new employer) up in pointless legal maneuverings.
Now that HFT trading has been cut in half (and is far less profitable), there is no need to handcuff the competition. Goldman extracted what profits they could.
Never had a case, and they knew it from the beginning.
OK, everybody who thinks Sergey is the only player outside of Goldman who has seen that code, raise your hands.
Everyone has it, it was and still is open source.
Goldman just wanted to tie competitors up in silly litigation, knowing the inefficient courts would take years to resolve anything. By that time (ie today), the simple HFT algorythms would be useless, HFT trading volume would have collapsed in half, and Goldman would have exploited the code as much as possible.
Goldman used the courts to stifle competition. That is all
Certainly could have been part of the calculation. With these guys, everything they do has a plan, stategy, and end goal.
Let's have a conference on this - Piketty
Goldman Sach 0 vs Sheep 1
"Goldman Sach 0 vs Sheep 1"
Not yet, if at all. It will be GS 0 vs Sheep 1 when (if?) Aleynikov wins millions for the wrongful imprisonment.
Had to look him up on Wikipedia, as it has been a while.
Apparently the MMOTU have been jerking him around for five years now. Arrested in 2010, Federal case was overturned in 2012. And then,
So another thought crime is now illegal.
then,
so this was the end of that case.
Looks like some fat juicy civil cases are lined up for years to come.
Good thing he's young, he may live to see them settled.
Justice, for once. The judge will be replaced when Hillary gets in.
TIME should make him "PERSON OF THE YEAR" or some such bull shit which really should be, in his case, MAN OF THE YEAR!
The crap this cat has been through is hard to fathom but then again, Greg Smith was correct.
Let Turney Duff take him out partying!
Breaking news, Goldman Sachs requires TARP II bailout.
Yay!
Did jewboy sucks go after this guy because he is Russian and a whole passel of thieving jews got booted out of Russia by Putin? Sorry for the base comment, I'm feeling a little antisemenetic today after watching nuttyjoohoo murdering Palestinian children on RT.