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from Commentaries:
Sergey strikes back
The case of Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs programmer charged with stealing some of the top secret code to the investment bank's high-frequency trading program, is going on the offensive.
Aleynikov has filed a subpoena on his former employer, seeking access to some information--mainly his personnel file. And Goldman has responded by filing a motion in federal court to quash the subpoena. Goldman filed its motion on Aug. 6, a source familiar with the matter says.
A hearing on Goldman's motion to put the kibosh on Aleynikov's request for documents will be heard Monday afternoon beofre Judge Paul Crotty.
The hearing on Aleynikov's motion comes as the attorney for the former Goldman employee and federal prosecutors continue to work towards trying to reach a potential plea deal in the case.
from Commentaries:
Will Sergey cut a deal?
It looks like federal prosecutors may be trying to cut a deal with alleged Goldman Sachs high-frequency trading code stealer Sergey Aleynikov.
Today was the day for prosecutors to indict Aleynikov, who was arrested on July 3 on the theft charges. But in a court filing, prosecutors told the presiding magistrate judge that they need another 14 days to continue discussions with Aleynikov's lawyer about a "possible disposition.''
In the legal world, a "possible disposition'' means a deal.
Now it could be that prosecutors want to get Aleynikov to plead guilty so he can provide evidence against other potential defendants. But I don't think that's the case here.
You can see HTF affected stocks in day trading, quite funny really. Buy it up in/before the last 3 hours of the day short it 5-8% and go home richer cause the machine is manipulating the price and the pattern is so obvious.
from Commentaries:
Don’t mess with Goldman
Poor Sergey Aleynikov.
The former Goldman Sachs programmer who allegedly stole some of the Wall Street firm's top secret proprietary trading code picked the wrong firm to mess with--really. If Aleynikov had been an employee of UBS, he might only be facing a civil lawsuit right now--not federal criminal charges.
In March, nearly four months before Goldman ran to federal prosecutors with their concerns about Aleynikov, UBS was in New York State Supreme Court filing a civil lawsuit against three former employees, charging them with doing much the same thing the ex-Goldman employee did. The only difference is no criminal charges have been filed against the three former UBS employees.
The UBS lawsuit was first reported in June by Dealbreaker.com, after going unnoticed for several weeks. It's getting more attention now in the wake of the Goldman case, which has begun to shed light on the importance of so-called high frequency trading strategies to Wall Street firms.
GOLDMAN SACHS Writes To The President…. A LETTER of THANKS.
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2009 /07/goldman-sachs-thank-you-mr-presiden t.html
……. And the circus continues, with Taxpayer singing the tune.
from Commentaries:
Chez Sergey
Earlier today, my Reuters colleague Steve Eder posted about his journey Sunday to the New Jersey mansion of alleged Goldman Sachs trading code thief Sergey Aleynikov. And what a home it is.
It appears Sergey and his family recently moved into a brand spanking new McMansion in North Caldwell, NJ. As I pointed out last week, North Caldwell just happens to the same town that Tony Soprano was supposed to reside in. And the house Sergey bought isn't much smaller than Tony's.
Guess that means Sergey wasn't planning to relocate to Chicago for his new $1.2 million-a-year job with Teza Technologies.
The Aleynikov abode on Arbor Road is valued at $1.14 million, according to a financial statement Sergey submitted to federal authorities following his July 3 arrest. Other assets Aleynikov listed was a home in Little Falls, NJ he and his wife, Elina, are trying to sell. He listed the market value for that more modest home at $550,000.
from Commentaries:
Meet Jason, a former Sergey colleague
Jason is one of the more than 100 programmers working on the secret sauce code that drives Goldman Sachs' automated trading systems--also known as high-frequency trading.
How do I know? Well it says so here, on a Goldman promotional web page, where "real" employees for the firm talk about their jobs and their lives.
I'm assuming Jason (no last name given) is a real person. There is a photo of him. He tells us he works in Japan in the equity trading group. And Jason talks about coming to "Goldman Sachs through campus recruiting at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute."
But Jason's brief personal biography is not so interesting as the description of what he does for Goldman, which involves "developing and servicing high-frequency, low-latency applications for trading systems."
from Commentaries:
Goldman should disclose more
Goldman Sachs doesn't report second-quarter earnings until Tuesday, but some Wall Street analysts aren't waiting to sing the giant investment firm's praises.
What's impressing the analysts the most is Goldman's ability to again print money like no one else -- especially when it comes to trading stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies. Bank of America analyst Guy Moszkowski sounded almost giddy the other day in predicting blowout trading revenues for Goldman, describing the firm as "arguably the most well-respected investment bank." Moszkowski now expects net trading revenues to top the record $25 billion raked in by Goldman in 2007.
It makes one fear that analysts will again start prefacing their questions during the firm's scheduled conference call with comments like "Great quarter, guys."
Please don't.
it’s one too far…. Nader wasn’t as bug a nut case as many thought. in fact, he is still one of the true heroes of my lifetime (Unsafe At Any Speed). ENOUGH. When will americans WAKE UP? Hellooooooooo?
from Commentaries:
Citadel joins the Sergey fray
Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group just filed a lawsuit against former top trader Misha Malyshev for apparently violating a non-compete agreement he signed when leaving the big Chicago hedge fund earlier this year. Malyshev, of course, is the founder of Teza Technologies, an upstart high-frequency trading hedge fund that hired away alleged Goldman Sachs code-cracker Sergey Aleynikov.
Malyshev and his partners, all former Citadel people, put out a statement on Tuesday saying they suspended Aleynikov after learning of his July 3 arrest. The former Citadel guys also say they were unware of Aleynikov's alleged theft of Goldman's proprietary trading computer code.
I don't have a copy of the complaint yet, so I don't know whether Citadel has sued anyone else at Teza. Nor do I know the exact nature of the legal claims. I'll update when I get more.
Update:
from Commentaries:
Is Goldman Sachs evil?
Is Goldman Sachs really a "vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity"?
That's the view of journalist Matt Taibbi in a long article in Rolling Stone magazine. Taibbi blames the firm for almost single-handedly orchestrating every investment calamity since the Great Depression. And judging by much of the reaction in the blogosphere, Taibbi's view has become the accepted meme when talking about Goldman.
Yet that simple storyline, as compelling as it may be, is far from the truth.
The reality is Goldman is no more of a sinner than any other Wall Street bank. Is Goldman really any more responsible for the inflating and the bursting of the housing bubble than
It’s ok for others such as CIBC to take a loss thanks to GS, but it’s not ok for GS to take a loss via AIG so that Paulson (former GS CEO) has government bailout AIG to pay GS in full through AIG and to also give TARP to GS and to change it into bank holding company so it can have access to very low interest money that it can lend out for more. It’s good having connections with influence and power that can save your neck at just they right time that your rival Lehman Brothers didn’t. This is a form of plutarchy.
from Commentaries:
Sergey in the land of Tony
So it seems alleged Goldman Sachs code breaker Sergey Aleynikov doesn't live in the tiny town of Little Falls, NJ as every one thought. It appears Aleynikov and his wife still own a house in Little Falls but it's up for sale and vacant.
For the moment at least, Aleynikov, who was sprung from federal prison late Monday, is living in a home in North Caldwell, NJ. Now for fans of the TV show the Sopranos, that town should sound familiar because it's where Tony and his family were supposed to live.
In fact, a lot of the Sopranos was filled in and around North Caldwell. Looks like the residents of that town may need to start getting used to a few more TV crews around.
from Commentaries:
Sergey and Misha
The name of the Chicago firm that hired alleged Goldman code-cracker Sergey Aleynikov is out and it's a name you've probably never heard of before. That's because Teza Technologies LLC is a new firm--formed in May--by former Citadel Investment Group trader Misha Malyshev.
Malyshev, who had been a top high-frequency trader at Citadel, left the giant hedge fund in February because he felt he was not being sufficiently compensated, says a source familiar with the situation. Malyshev's group was one of the more profitable last year for Ken Griffin's operation, which overall had one of its worst years ever in 2008
And here's the thing: I'm told Malyshev signed a nine month non-compete agreement with Citadel when he left.
Bloomberg first reported that Teza hired Aleynikov and got an email statement from the start-up, in which the firm said it "was not aware of the alleged misconduct.''
agree with Jamaal. all this hype is overblown and computer illiterate, and shame on Goldman and Citadel. Goldman only now figured out that someone downloaded some code month(s) ago? Yet if they say Aleynikov can manipulate markets then what stops Goldman to manipulate markets?! Feds should be all over Goldman for these kind of “scares”. This chaos around Teza makes me think that the guys setting up Teza are the “movers and shakers” in the fin tech market and competitors just scared to death about what they might have to compete against.
Ctan – downloading, accessing or otherwise using code or coding reference techniques at work is regular feature of any IT programming job. IT systems are built of various parts of which very little tends to be custom code – even in the case of cutting-edge stock trading systems. The underlying architecture will always have common principals with other types of system.
The truth is someone like Aleynikov could easily re-write his own code in a superior form anyway – something that Goldman will never be able to prevent, no matter how much they try.