After 6 Years of Prosecutorial Excess on Behalf of the Vampire Squid, We Finally See Aleynikov's Total Exoneration

After multiple prosecutions, by multiple prosecutors, at the behest of Goldman Sachs, Sergey Aleynikov is a free man, for a while, at least:

Kevin H. Marino pumped his fist in the air in celebration. Then Mr. Marino, a New Jersey lawyer with a linebacker’s build, turned to his longtime client, Sergey Aleynikov, and gave Mr. Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs programmer, a bear hug and a hearty pat on the back.

Just moments earlier, a clerk in State Supreme Court in Manhattan had given Mr. Marino a copy of the judicial ruling that overturned Mr. Aleynikov’s conviction on a charge that he stole confidential computer code for Goldman Sachs’s high-speed trading business.

The clerk, saving Mr. Marino from having to thumb through the 72 pages to learn what Justice Daniel P. Conviser had ruled, simply whispered congratulations to the lawyer. For Mr. Aleynikov, 45, and Mr. Marino, it appeared to be the end of a six-year legal odyssey through the federal and state court systems in New York.

But the celebration may not last long. State prosecutors in Manhattan have already indicated they may appeal the decision issued Monday, which threw out a jury’s verdict.

Once before, Mr. Aleynikov had believed he was in the clear, when a federal appeals court overturned his conviction under a federal corporate espionage law in 2012. The appellate court ruled that federal prosecutors in Manhattan had misapplied the law, and it ordered Mr. Aleynikov to be immediately released from a federal prison.

Less than a year later, however, Mr. Aleynikov was back in court defending himself, after state prosecutors in Manhattan charged him with violating state computer-theft-related laws.

Now Justice Conviser — much like the federal appellate court before him — ruled that the decades-old state law that Mr. Aleynikov was convicted of violating did not apply to the accusations against him.

………

But Mr. Marino was at no loss for words in criticizing Goldman.

“Goldman Sachs is powerful enough to provoke two failed criminal prosecutions to settle a private score,” Mr. Marino said. “Goldman Sachs has also spent millions in shareholder dollars to evade their obligation to pay Mr. Aleynikov’s legal fees for winning two criminal cases.”

I rather expect Vance to appeal, since the Manhattan district attorney is clearly bought and paid for by Wall Street.

At the time, I was hoping that this would turn over the rock that is the illegal front running high frequency trading conducting by the biggest brokerage firms, but the prosecutors were determined to keep that covered up, and to continue to avoid prosecutions that might bot reveal Goldman's skullduggery, and follow up with prosecutions grounded in bizarre legal theories.

Background here.