NEW YORK — A former Goldman Sachs programmer had a second conviction thrown out as another court ruled that taking the firm’s high frequency trading code wasn’t a crime.

Sergey Aleynikov, whose saga helped inspire Michael Lewis’s “Flash Boys,” was tried by New York prosecutors who took up the case after a federal conviction unraveled.

His defense both times was that his actions were a disagreement between him and the bank better suited for civil litigation.

A state judge agreed, lining up behind a federal appeals court that found in 2012 existing laws are a bad fit.

Aleynikov, 45, still faces a potential appeal by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

“We think this defendant committed a crime,” Joan Vollero, a spokeswoman for Vance, said in an e-mail. “If what Sergey Aleynikov did isn’t a crime, then every company that values its intellectual property should be concerned.”

Both prosecutions raised questions about how intellectual property disputes between companies and employees should be handled, especially on Wall Street. Aleynikov’s trip through two criminal justice systems has been closely watched by financial firms as they seek to hire programmers to implement trading strategies.

In the state case, the judge took the uncommon step of reserving his right to set aside the jury’s guilty verdict, delivered in May.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.