Cheuk Fung Richard Ho, a former quantitative trader at Headlands Technologies, has been indicted for allegedly stealing source code valued at over $1 billion to establish his own trading startup. Arrested on January 8, 2025, in Los Angeles, Ho faces one count of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, with potential penalties of up to 10 years in prison. The charges, brought by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, were developed by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit with FBI assistance. Ho, who worked at Headlands from 2019 to 2021, is accused of misappropriating proprietary components known as "Atoms" and "Alphas" to create his firm, One R Squared (ORS). The indictment alleges that Ho reprogrammed the stolen code while preserving its original structure and functionality. ORS later collaborated with Tower Research Capital, a competitor in the quantitative trading sector. Ho is also accused of misleading Headlands about his post-employment plans and instructing employees to delete evidence. A civil lawsuit filed by Headlands in June 2023 for breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation is ongoing, alongside the criminal case.