Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Evidence Suppressed in New York State Prosecution of Aleynikov

One of the more fascinating cases around is the case of former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov.  Aleynikov was convicted in the Southern District of New York for stealing secret high-frequency trading computer code from Goldman Sachs and sentenced to eight years in prison.  His conviction was reversed by the Second Circuit on the grounds that his actions were not covered by the federal statutes under which he was charged.  Aleynikov had already served a year in prison.

Then, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, apparently provided the testimonial and tangible evidence used in the prosecution of Aleynikov by the U.S. Attorney, decided to prosecute him in state court under state statutes, a decision I criticized because it violated at least the spirit of double jeopardy protection (see here).  Last week, a New York State judge threw out much of the evidence underlying the state prosecution on the ground that Aleynikov's arrest and related searches by federal agents were not supported by probable cause that he committed the underlying federal crimes, even though the agents acted in good faith.  See here.  New York has rejected on state constitutional grounds the "good faith exception" to unlawful searches applicable in federal courts.  Compare People v. Bigelow, 66 N.Y.2d 417 (1985) with United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984).  Mr. Vance's choice now is either to concede that the judge's suppression has made his case untriable and make an interlocutory appeal or go forward to trial without that evidence (or, of course, move to dismiss the case).

Ironically, Goldman Sachs, the purported victim of Aleynikov's alleged criminality, is laying out millions of dollars to afford Mr. Aleynikov the energetic and aggressive defense his lawyer, Kevin Marino, is providing.  A New Jersey federal judge last October ordered Goldman to advance Mr. Aleynikov's legal fees based on a corporate bylaw that required it to advance legal fees for officers charged in civil and criminal proceedings.  Aleynikov v. Goldman Sachs (Civ. No. 12-5994, DNJ, October 22, 2013).

(goldman)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2014/06/evidence-suppressed-in-new-york-prosecution-of-aleynikov.html

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