Friday, August 14, 2026

As Quant Prosecuted for Stealing Source Code from Headlands Courtroom Sealing Opposed



As Quant Prosecuted for Stealing Source Code from Headlands Courtroom Sealing Opposed

by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Aug 12 –  Back in January 2025 SDNY prosecutors announced an Indictment charging CHEUK FUNG RICHARD HO with theft and attempted theft of trade secrets.  The charges in the Indictment arose from HO’s alleged scheme to steal trade secrets from his former employer, a global quantitative trading firm. That firm was Headlands Technologies LLC.

On September 12, 2025 Ho was before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jannette A. Vargas. Inner City Press was there, and live tweeted:

Judge: Where are we on discovery? 

AUSA: We've seized the AWS files of Mr. Ho's firm, 15 TB. 

Judge: Can you do AI search? 

AUSA: We don't currently have that capability. But we think a June 2026 trial is doable

Ho's Skadden lawyer: My client says he wrote the source code. All we have from the Government is 61 snippets 

Judge: A 3 week trial is set is set to start July 13, 2026.

On November 7, 2025 the US Attorney's Office filed to quash subpoenas Ho filed, saying they do not meet the Nixon standard.

Jump cut to August 2026, when the US Attorney's Office proposed to seal the courtroom not only for portions of the trial, but also for the Daubert expert hearings. Inner City Press immediately filed opposition, now on CourtListener here.

Note that previous attempts in SDNY to seal the courtroom have been opposed, and transparency safeguards imposed were only belated and partially complied with, see here. This is an ongoing project, including in other Districts.

  Replies are due August 21. Watch this site.

The case is USA v. Ho, 1:25-cr-3 (Vargas)

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