Posted on 05/01/2015 12:04:27 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
For the second time in five years, Sergey Aleynikov was convicted on charges of stealing confidential computer trading code from his former employer, Goldman Sachs. The first time it took a federal jury just hours to convict; this time it came after more than a week of deliberation and an accusation of “food poisoning” and avocado tampering in a state court jury room.
A jury on Friday convicted Mr. Aleynikov on one of the counts he faced but found him not guilty on another. They deadlocked on a third count against Mr. Aleynikov, who smiled nervously after the decision was announced.
The split verdict — a striking conclusion to a case that divided the legal world, inspired a best-selling book and spotlighted the secret formulas behind high-frequency trading on Wall Street — came after the case nearly ended in what would have been the most bizarre of mistrials.
The prospect of a mistrial stemmed from a dispute between two jurors deciding Mr. Aleynikov’s fate, with a female juror accusing a male one of “food tampering” — in part because an avocado was missing from her sandwich. The female juror also said she had taken a blood test to determine whether she was poisoned, turning the criminal proceedings into a culinary whodunit. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Most of the fun here is the Avocado Caper among the jurors. Thanks Brad from Tennessee.
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