Defendant Dmitry Sazonov (“Defendant” or “Sazonov”), age 44, was arrested on April 13, 2017, whereupon a criminal complaint was filed against him in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and federal prosecutors. The government alleges that Sazonov “attempted to steal valuable proprietary computer code that took his employer years to develop,” according to Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim. Sazonoz was employed for thirteen years by Susquehanna International Group (“Susquehanna”), a financial services firm headquartered in Pennsylvania with offices in Manhattan. Susquehanna’s principal line of business is securities trading and other financial products. Sazonov allegedly attempted to steal “proprietary computer code for a trading platform” that Susquehanna developed. The Feds report that “the trading platform Sazonov worked on trades $300 million in options daily.” The FBI’s investigation revealed that “Sazonov allegedly took elaborate steps to conceal his attempted theft, including camouflaging pieces of source code within harmless-looking draft emails on his work computer.” The criminal complaint alleges that Sazonov efforts to steal the code began in February 2017 when he learned his supervisor had resigned.
The Defendant is charged with one count of attempted theft of trade secrets, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. The charges contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the Defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Complaint: http://src.bna.com/nVJ