Sergey Aleynikov only wants 35 minutes of Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein’s time.
The Wall Street powerhouse faced off against its former computer programmer in a Delaware court on Thursday in at least its fourth try to keep from footing Aleynikov’s roughly $7 million legal bill.
The New Jersey computer whiz, a former Goldman vice president, was twice acquitted — once by a federal court jury and then by a Manhattan state court jury — of criminal charges that he stole code from the bank in 2009 and has been trying for years to get the bank to pay his mounting legal bills.
For Aleynikov, the bills are staggering — but for Goldman, the cash amounts to about 35 minutes of its 2015 revenue of $35.7 billion.
Blankfein’s bank contends it doesn’t need to fork over a dime because only bank officers get their legal bills covered — and VP titles are handed out like free pens at a bank branch opening. VPs are not officers, Goldman contends, citing its bylaws.
Two different federal courts read the Goldman bylaws and couldn’t figure it out. One, a Philadelphia appeals court, tried in 2014 to determine whether a Goldman VP was indeed an officer of the bank and called the term “ambiguous.”
With the federal courts apparently flummoxed, Aleynikov’s lawyer asked a Delaware court to figure it out.
Aleynikov, 46, contends he most certainly was an officer.
“It was a big deal to me to become an officer of a prestigious investment bank,” Aleynikov testified at Thursday’s hearing, according to Bloomberg. “It was a great accomplishment.”
The case could have broad consequences for Goldman, which has about 13,000 VPs and therefore could find itself facing a long line of lawyers with their hands out.
“When an investment bank uses the term ‘officers’ without qualification or limitation, it is commonly understood to refer to all those in an officer’s position, including all vice presidents,” Donald Jones, an expert testifying for Aleynikov, said in a pretrial brief.
Fueling Aleynikov’s dismay is the fact that Goldman, from 2007 to 2013, paid the legal fees of 51 of 53 employees who requested it, his lawyers contend in legal papers.
And 15 of the 51 were vice presidents. Some of those getting their legal bills taken care of actually did what they were accused of.
One VP who got his legal bills paid for was “Fabulous” Fabrice Tourre, the ex-bond trader who was found liable for defrauding investors and became a scapegoat of the 2008 financial crisis.
Aleynikov, who was the inspiration for Michael Lewis’ breakout 2013 book “Flash Boys,” is in his seventh year of a legal war with his former employer.
While Aleynikov doesn’t deny that he downloaded the bank’s code, he argues that it’s a civil, not criminal, matter.
If successful in Delaware, Aleynikov will have to return to a New Jersey federal court to pursue his claim. A loss in Delaware will likely derail his effort to get Goldman to pay.
A Goldman spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Kevin Marino, Aleynikov’s lawyer.