
Ex-Goldman Programmer Is Arrested Again - bearmf
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/ex-goldman-programmer-is-arrested-again/
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cletus
At first I was thinkign "double jeopardy" but the article explains why that
isn't the case. Basically the federal law was misapplied so the state of New
York can bring their own charges (actually, they could probably do this
anyway).

This does seem wrong to me because he's essentially being charged for much the
same crime on the same set of facts. It seems like when the dual-sovereignty
Federal-State system was created the idea was that that the Federal and State
governments would be responsible for different things such that you would be
violating either Federal or State law (or possibly both but for different
offences).

This seems like prosecutorial abuse.

That all being said, if you consider the facts int his case: the code in
question was highly sensitive and as much as the article calls the action of
sending it to a server in Germany (IIRC) a "mistake", it seems fairly clear to
me that it was or was intended to be theft.

Just don't take code from a former employer. Ever. This is a good rule of
thumb for every engineer to follow,. Even if what you're doing isn't (likely
to be) criminal conduct, you can then run afoul of copyright claims and so
forth if you ever implement something similar.

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mcantelon
>This seems like prosecutorial abuse.

Goldman gives a lot of money to political campaigns (#1 donor to Obama[1], #2
to Romney[2] in last election). NY mayor Michael Bloomberg seems to fawn over
Goldman[3], offering $1.65B in tax breaks for them to set up an office at
Ground Zero[4]. My guess is Goldman's gold, regardless of the means in which
they've acquired it, is a significant factor to Manhattnan DA's sudden
interest in prosecuting white collar crime.

[1] <http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cid=N00009638>

[2] <http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?id=N00000286>

[3]
[http://www.salon.com/2012/03/16/mayor_bloomberg_personally_c...](http://www.salon.com/2012/03/16/mayor_bloomberg_personally_cheers_up_goldman_sachs/)

[4]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg#Economic_issu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg#Economic_issues)

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staunch
If you ever wondered, this is what it looks like when a corporation has
politicians in their pocket. Goldman Sachs is the extreme example of
capitalism gone wrong. So powerful they can't lose money and so powerful they
can treat legislators and law enforcement like the employees they are.

~~~
ataggart
_Goldman Sachs is the extreme example of capitalism gone wrong._

I find it interesting this sort of thing is rarely, if ever, presented as
government gone wrong. Not everything based on self-interest falls within
capitalism. When someone steals, commits extortion, etc., no one considers it
an "example of capitalism". And yet when the government engages in such at the
behest of self-interested parties, "capitalism" gets the rap. Quite odd.

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jobu
Interesting point in semantics. Crony Capitalism and Political Prostitution
are basically different facets of the same thing. Perhaps it depends on who
you blame more: the politicians for taking the money, or business people for
offering it.

Either way, the main question is how do you counter it or at least balance it
out so the little people don't get trampled?

~~~
jeffdavis
"Crony Capitalism"

Which is an oxymoron; government favoritism is the antithesis of capitalism.
The fact that money is involved doesn't make it capitalism.

~~~
Evbn
What does non-government have to do with capitalism? Libertarianism is a
different word.

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jeffdavis
Capitalism is about transferable private property rights. In order to be
transferable, they need to be enforced somewhat evenly.

Libertarianism is a different concept that includes economic policies and non-
economic policies.

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Cieplak
What is the prosecution's justification for this not being double-jeopardy?

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chollida1
Different jurisdictions, Federal and state.

It still seems pretty vindictive.

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gte910h
I really hate that this is allowed.

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runako
A person allegedly breaks several different laws in different jurisdictions;
is prosecuted for each alleged violation in each jurisdiction. What's wrong
with that?

A more extreme counterexample would be that a case where a person broke into
an office and stole a USB stick, kidnapping an employee and shooting a guard
on the way out. There's IP theft (federal), kidnapping (federal), and homicide
(local). Which should that person _not_ be prosecuted for? How do you choose?

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chollida1
To me the biggest problem for an individual is that they incur the cost of
defending themselves twice.

For state and federal governments the cost of 2 trials is inconsequential.

For an individual the cost of two trials can easily push them into bankruptcy.
Now if the individual is guilty you might not have that much sympathy for
them, but consider that innocent people have to defend them selves in court as
well.

~~~
runako
I agree with the general issue of the cost of defending oneself. But today, in
New York alone, hundreds of poor people will be arrested and charged with
crimes they may not be guilty of. Many will have been singled out because of
their appearance. They will not have access to attorneys (except the public
defender flunkies), and most will serve jail time. I have a lot more concern
and sympathy for the breakage of the system for these guys than for the
multimillionaire banker who was charged essentially only because he got
caught.

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pessimizer
Sergey made their "secret sauce." If he had been more aware of who the laws
were made for, and how they've had them written, he'd have never made such a
stupid mistake in taking the actual code. It's not like he couldn't have
completely recreated that sauce, from scratch with improvements, within a
month or two.

Sergey _was_ the secret sauce. Erlang + OCaml might be a match made in heaven.
It's just too bad that he works in a profession where the exact way you've
gone about something is owned by your employer. If some fund manager brought
his trading strategies to another firm, even if he came up with them at the
previous firm, he wouldn't be spending a year in prison.

Of course, this is just what I think - I'm not allowed to see the code in
question, so all I can do is guess.

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Irishsteve
Just going off memory here, but I believe he was found to have been ftp'ing
code or snipplets of code to a server he had in Germany.

~~~
pessimizer
His code, to a pastebin-type site.

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sjtgraham
Can't help but think they won't stop until they get their man, by hook or by
crook.

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DigitalSea
All pledge allegiance to The United States of Goldman Sachs. The power this
company has to do whatever it wants is absolutely atrocious. This is nothing
more than a company trying to hide the fact a low-level employee gained access
to highly valuable source code that is regarded as the secret-sauce of Goldman
Sachs which should never have happened in the first place. I've worked for
small companies that have better security than that.

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barking
If this guy hadn't successfully appealed the federal charges, could the state
have waited until he'd finished that sentence before prosecuting? If yes, it's
like you can get punished twice for the same crime in America.

~~~
runako
Except that they are different laws and therefore different crimes. Let's use
something more obvious: a bank robber who fatally shoots a guard on the way
out. That's one event but several crimes. This person can absolutely be tried
and sentenced for any/all of the crimes committed in that event, separately,
in separate courts (federal and state). While I think the prosecutions are
typically sequential, they wouldn't be combined (different jurisdictions).

Similar logic applies to a criminal who commits crimes across several states.

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vexxt
Goldman Sachs is above the law.

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leoh
Doesn't anyone believe in the concept of grace any more? Aleynikov made a
mistake. Can't we move on? Goldman is subverting true justice. And if the code
is so powerful, why should Goldman be able to continue using it in the first
place?

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emiliobumachar
Crime and punishment discussions aside, are you serious about forbidding them
to use their code? How would that work out? Who would get to decide? What if
someone deploys a too powerful team of humans to do the same thing?

~~~
joahua
Xmen?

