Sergey Aleynikov

Portrait from Aleynikov's legal defense site.

Birthname	Sergey Aleynikov
Date of Birth	February 23, 1972
Birth Place	Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian, American
Occupation	Computer Programmer and Software Architect
Biography	Russian-American computer programmer accused of violating trade-secret protection laws.

Sergey Aleynikov is a Russian-American computer programmer who has been indicted for illegally appropriating code from Goldman Sachs, his former employer. While employed at Goldman Sachs in New York City between 2007 and 2009, he developed high-frequency trading (HFT) systems on behalf of the Direct Private Investing division. In mid-2009, he received and accepted an offer from a competing HFT firm, Teza Technologies. Before leaving his position at Goldman Sachshttp://www.rutgers.edu/, he created personal copies of source code from Goldman Sachs information technology infrastructure. He was subsequently convicted twice of crimes related to the downloading of code and is currently still engaged in a legal defense of his actions. His career in the HFT field inspired the book Flash Boys.

Early Life

Aleynikov was born to a Russian Jewish family of academics. Before attending the Moscow Institute of Transportation Engineering, he first used a computer at age sixteen and became fascinated by writing computer programs. He wished to study Computer Science during his undergraduate term, but was prevented from doing so by Soviet authorities on account of his semitism. He was only allowed to study mathematics.

Emigration to the U.S.

Before finishing his degree in Moscow, he became frustrated that he was not permitted to pursue his interest and concerned by the political climate in Moscow. He decided to emigrate to the United States shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union and arrived in New York City in mid-1990. He would later become a naturalized U.S. citizen. He sought employment in New York City and eventually found a position as a programmer at a New Jersey Medical Imaging clinic. He soon moved to a position in the Rutgers University computer science department where he completed first a Bachelor degree in computer science and then a Master of Science degree, both concurrent with his employment.

Professional Career

Early Career

Upon completing his Master's degree in 1996, he took a sequence of positions working as a software engineer for internet companies. In 1998, he took a role at a New Jersey-based telecommunications company, IDT Corporation. He spent nearly nine years working as a Director and Lead Engineer in IDT's Research and Development division, improving the logic used to route voice calls through telephone lines.

Transition to Wall Street

A recruiter for Wall Street financial firms contacted Aleynikov in 2006 in attempt to convince Aleynikov to apply for algorithmic stock trading positions. The recruiter believed Aleynikov was a good candidate because of Aleynikov's extensive experience working with low-latency systems like the IDT's voice call routing system. Aleynikov was initially disinterested in the nature of the work, but agreed in 2007 to interview with Goldman Sachs when he became concerned about the state of IDT's management and needed additional income to fund the purchase of a larger home for his family. After completing several rounds of interviews, he accepted an offer for a position as a Vice-President of Equity Strategy in May, 2007.