A high profile dispute between Swiss bank UBS and three employees in its algorithmic stock trading division that moved to Wall Street competitor Jefferies & Company has been decided by a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel.  The suit was originally filed by UBS with the New York State Supreme Court but was remanded to FINRA at the request of defendants.  UBS alleged "misappropriation of trade secrets" by the three former employees.  The defendants were Jatin Suryawanshi, the former managing director in UBS's Algorithmic Trading Group; Partha Sarkar, an executive director in the Group; and Sanjay Girdhar, a director in the Group.  The claimed misappropriation included source code used in UBS's algorithmic trading programs, according to filings submitted to the New York State Supreme Court.  UBS was seeking both injunctive relief as well as substantial compensatory and punitive damages.

In a sweeping victory, all UBS claims against the three algorithmic traders now at Jefferies were denied by the FINRA arbitration panel in a published decision dated February 8, 2010, or were dropped by UBS based upon the evidence developed in the arbitration.  Monty G. Myers, founder and CEO of Eureka Software Solutions Inc., provided critical expert testimony in this complex software trade secrets dispute.    In addition, Eureka Software's expert team provided important forensic analyses to counteract certain accusations made in the dispute.  Lance Gotko of Friedman Kaplan Seiler and Adelman LLP, the attorney representing the defendants, stated, "The outstanding work and testimony of software expert Monty Myers and his team played a significant role in the ultimate outcome in this case in favor of my clients. He made the complex materials at issue in the case easily understandable by the arbitration Panel, and effectively shattered erroneous allegations made by UBS."

Mr. Myers and Eureka Software have provided expert consulting and testimony in several other notable software trade secret related disputes in recent years and has had success working with plaintiffs as well as defendants.  Mr. Myers and Eureka Software offer a strong blend of active software industry knowledge and experience combined with an excellent understanding and proficiency/aptitude in the strategic and deadline driven litigation arena.  For more information, please e-mail expert@eurekasoft.com or call 512-459-9292.