Russian "theft of trade secrets charge" detained by FBI

The FBI has nabbed a Russian computer programmer on 3 July as he got off a flight at Newark Airport and has since been processed on a "theft of trade secrets charge". According to an FBI affidavit, Segey Aleynikov copied proprietary trading code relating to the New York-based financial institution's platform for high speed, high volume stock and commodities trading, before uploading it to a server in Germany.

Aleynikov worked at the unnamed firm from May 2007 until June 2009 as a computer programmer in a team responsible for, among other things, developing and improving the platform. He quit his $400,000 a year job last month, moving to a new company in Chicago that "intended to engage in high-volume automated trading" and that paid him around three times his old salary, the FBI says.

According to the affidavit, Aleynikov gave a statement confirming he copied the encrypted files from the firm's server and uploaded them to the Web site before deleting the encryption software and bash history and moving the files to his own computers. However, Aleynikov claims he only intended to take open source files, not realising until later that he had also copied proprietary code, which he insists he has not given to anyone else.

The financial institution involved has spent million of dollars on the platform and accompanying programs, which it believes gives it a "competitive advantage among other firms that also engage in high-volume automated trading".

Aleynikov has had bail set at $750,000 by US Magistrate Kevin Nathaniel Fox in Manhattan, says the Reuters.