A U.S. District Court in Manhattan has sentenced former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov to eight years and one month in prison for theft of trade secrets and transportation of stolen property.
Aleynikov, a 40-year-old Russian immigrant, was sentenced by Judge Denise Cote on Friday despite appeals by his defense to dismiss the charges or to start new hearings. He was also fined $12,500.
Aleynikov was arrested almost two years ago, shortly after he left the famous investment firm to take a job with Teza Technologies, a start-up high-frequency trading firm in Chicago.
He was convicted by a jury in December last year.
According to the verdict, the Russian immigrant, who holds dual United States and Russian citizenship, stole a proprietary code from Goldman Sachs high-frequency trading platform to build a trading system for Teza Technologies after having been offered $300,000 in salary, $700,000 in bonus money and a profit-sharing cut by his new employer.
High-frequency trading, which uses complex computer algorithms to exploit tiny price discrepancies in the so-called "rapid-fire trades," has become an important source of revenue and a competitive advantage at investment firms.
The U.S. Justice Department has made the prosecution of high-tech crime a priority.
NEW YORK, March 19 (RIA Novosti)
