Goldman Sachs throws programer in jail for 8 yrs, for leaving their ranks!

[truedelphi]

This is a sad story of how there has indeed been one Goldman Sachs employee punished and sentenced to jail time.

Unfortunately this person was a programmer, not someone connected to the big financial manipulations that totally collapsed our economy in 2008.

Sergei's main sin was the fact that he was tired of the ersatz computer program that GS had him continually repairing. Even though he was being paid the big bucks at Goldman, he opted out of there in order to head up the computer division at another company, where he could build a computer program from scratch.

Goldman was so attached to the idea that one of the best programmers on the East Coast needed to stay with them, they had him arrested.

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-sachs-programmer

[DavidDvorkin]

1. The title of that post is very misleading

Justified or not, he was accused of stealing code, not of leaving the company.

The problem seems to be that the FBI agent investigating him is computer illiterate, or at least software development illiterate, and so entirely misunderstood what he had been doing. That's a separate problem, entirely. In any case, he was not arrested for leaving the company.

[truedelphi]

5. David, please read the article all the way through.

It is very well written, and I can't explain it paragraph by paragraph to you, as I don't want to post spoilers to some of the "surprises" in this legal saga.

But you will see what happens at the tail end of the saga. Which points out to the true motivation of Goldman Sachs.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. I did read it all the way through, and I stand by what I said

Unless I missed something, he was accused of stealing code. Whether or not the accusation is fair is a different question, but he was not jailed for leaving the company.

[X_Digger]

13. Agreed. n/t

[truedelphi]

15. The motive behind the indictment was to take him

Out of that field of employment, so no other company but Goldman could indeed use this man's services.


I mean we are not yet enough of a feudal society that Goldman can jail someone for working for someone else, but in the end, if Sergei hadn't been able to have his case reviewed by a more reasonable judge, that is what would have happened. He would have been in jail for eight years, all on account of GS's insatiable appetite for control.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

2. Just finished the article--thank you for the link.

Reason #4523 that no one should trust the government, ever, for any reason.
Reason #572 that Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman CEO) should be........well, that part's redacted to keep me out of trouble.

[truedelphi]

7. Luckily for the NSA, their microwave signal technology

Has figured out the part you redacted. Apparently enough trace memories of what you originally thought remain as memory remnants in your brain, and they got it all now.

The drones will be at your house or place of work any moment now!

[Brigid]

4. If I had been on that jury . . .

I don't think I would have known what to make of all this either.

[truedelphi]

6. That is true of many of us. In the comments section, one person

replying points out how this trial would have never gone to court at all, in Germany or France.

And in France, if it had gone to trial, the jury would have been made up of experts in the field of computer programming. In America, I believe our system is quite antiquated.

[icymist]

11. Antiquated and biased. nt

[hunter]

8. High frequency trading is evil.

Goldman Sachs is evil

Worked for the devil, got burned.

[icymist]

10. Very good and well written article.

I see that Goldman Sachs is evil; it's only reason for being is to make money for itself. Sergei is a brilliant, multi-talented programmer. GS gets him, he's the best at what he does and when he wants to leave the Evil Empire that GS has become they get him thrown into jail.It's kind of like Goldman Sachs is saying, "If we can't have him, then nobody can."

[icymist]

12. As one of the commenters on the story put it:

<snip>
Aleynikov *IS* the secret sauce. He doesn't need the Goldman code; in fact, the Goldman code would slow him down and hurt his envisioned system. It demonstrates how greedy and unscrupulous Goldman Sachs is that they're willing to (a) not only prevent Aleynikov from earning a living but (b) put an innocent man in jail just so they can make more money. Very, very disgusting.

I have to agree with this as why GS wants this man in jail and out of their way; so they can keep making fast money!

[woo me with science]

14. K&R