Jitesh Thakkar legally immigrated to the United States from India in 1989 at the age of 13 to live the American Dream. He learned English, graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Computer Engineering degree, and founded his own small programming business. Now he faces unprecedented criminal charges because his company created software that a client later used to engage in unlawful CME futures trading without his knowledge.

Make no mistake about it—Jitesh is innocent of the charges. He did not know what the trader would do with the software he created, which had legitimate uses. But Jitesh now faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills because he must go to trial to prove his innocence, even though he has no prior criminal record or even any regulatory infractions.

Jitesh is a fighter and has utilized every monetary resource available to retain a prominent law firm to represent him. The case is scheduled to go to trial on April 1, 2019, in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The financial technology industry and small business owners everywhere will be watching intently because this case could set a precedent that would be used against other innocent programmers.

For those interested in helping out - I have created a Go Fund Me to help him pay for his defense.

https://www.gofundme.com/programmer-vs-us-govt-legal-defense-fund?sharetype=teams&member=1647830&rcid=r01-154975040165-67224aa5f0804395&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w