A former quantitative researcher at Headlands Technologies LLC is facing federal criminal charges for allegedly stealing proprietary source code that the firm invested more than $1 billion to develop.
Cheuk Fung Richard Ho was indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets. He has pleaded not guilty and is seeking to have the charges dismissed.
What allegedly happened
According to the indictment, Ho misappropriated key proprietary components of Headlands’ trading infrastructure between July 2019 and August 2021, while he was still employed at the Chicago-based quantitative trading firm. The stolen elements are known internally as “Atoms” and “Alphas,” which are essential building blocks of the firm’s algorithmic trading strategies.
Ho resigned from Headlands in July 2021. That same year, he launched a competing firm called One R Squared, or ORS, reportedly leveraging the misappropriated code to give his new venture a competitive advantage.
