Second Circuit Reverses Economic Espionage Conviction, Then Steps Back

This blog has previously covered the arrest, prosecution and trial of Sergey Aleynikov, the former employee and computer programmer of the Goldman Sachs Group accused and convicted of misappropriating computer source code from Goldman. After being convicted by a federal jury, Aleynikov was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The most recent turn of events in Aleynikov's case, however, suggest that the most interesting aspects of this case are yet to be determined. In the past few days, Aleynikov's case took not one, but two surprising turns. On February 16, 2012 -- one day after it heard oral argument on appeal -- the Second Circuit issued an order that reversed Aleynikov's conviction and directed the district court to enter a judgment of acquittal. One day after that, an apparently free man, Aleynikov was dealt an unusual hand by the same appellate judges who freed him: the Second Circuit rescinded the order that freed and acquitted Aleynikov and issued a second