Goldman Sachs ex-programmer freed from prison

Sergey Aleynikov, a former programmer at Goldman Sachs, has been released from jail after his conviction for stealing algorithmic trading code was overturned.

Sergey Aleynikov, a former programmer at Goldman Sachs, has been released from jail after his conviction for stealing algorithmic trading code was overturned.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned Aleynikov's conviction last Thursday, soon after hearing the arguments.

Aleynikov, 42, is free without bail, and the government is understood to be considering whether to retry him.

"Justice occasionally works," said Aleynikov as he was freed.

Aleynikov has spent eight months in a New Jersey federal prison. The programmer, originally from Russia, had been accused of copying long lines of algorithmic code used in Goldman Sachs' high frequency trading platform, and uploading them to a server in Germany. He was accused of attempting to take the code to a new employer.

Aleynikov's lawyers had argued during the original trial that he was downloading open source code. He also made no attempt to share the code with his new employers, high frequency trading firm Teza Technologies, they said, where he was due to have his salary nearly tripled from what he was earning at Goldman Sachs.

Teza had not been accused of any wrongdoing.

In other Goldman Sachs news, last week it emerged that a high-profile former IT analyst at the company, Henry King, is reportedly under investigation for leaking insider trading information. US authorities, thought to include the FBI, are said to be investigating allegations that King passed on to hedge funds a raft of insider information pertaining to technology companies.