When Goldman Is OK With 'Sharing' Trade Secrets

thenews 2013.05.04 19:04

When it is on the receiving end of course.

Several days ago we reported that Goldman's various judicial pawns would not rest for a minute until they made the life of the original "HFT code stealer" Russian algo trader Sergey Aleynikov, the 10th circle of hell for allegedly borrowing source code from Goldman in 2009 that could "manipulate markets" and which would be used at his subsequent employer, Teza. What we also said is that what Aleynikov did was a "practice engaged by every single algo and quant programmer when they switch jobs." What we did not say, because it is painfully obvious, is that Aleynikov's crime is nothing more than what virtually every financial professional does in the period of transition between jobs: while unethical, preserving what they believe is their labor product over the years, including porting over their work, rolodex, emails and contacts, is something done by roughly 99% of bankers who are are confident they are entitled to the portability of such information, and where the gray line between what is yours and what is your employer's, does not exist.

It also appears, while Goldman is willing to spend millions to prosecute a person for engaging in just such behavior, it has no scruples with being the receiving end of trade secrets coming from other firms. Such as Credit Suisse. Reuters reports that "Credit Suisse Group AG sued the former vice president of its emerging markets group on Friday, claiming she stole confidential documents and trade secrets to transfer business to her new employer, Goldman Sachs Group Inc."

In a complaint filed in Manhattan state court, Credit Suisse said Agostina Pechi sent confidential and highly sensitive company documents to her personal email account in the months leading up to her resignation, including databases, client contact information and sales team targets.
The Swiss bank also accused her of conducting an "after-hours document raid" when she was scheduled to be on vacation in which she allegedly copied transaction documents related to a longtime Credit Suisse client.