President Donald Trump Wednesday she is forgiven Anthony Levandowski, a former Google and Uber engineer and self-driving car specialist judgment up to 18 months in prison in August 2020 for stealing trade secrets from Google.
Levandowski developed his own driving technology at Google and made millions. He left the company to acquire Otto, the only self-driving driver he sold to raise Uber giant in 2016 for $ 680 million. Next year, Google’s only way to run Waymo criticized Uber alleging that Levandowski seized thousands of Google files, including trade secrets, before leaving.
The companies settled when Uber offered Waymo about $ 250 million in cash and agreed not to violate the company’s intellectual property.
But in August 2019, state prosecutors charged Levandowski with 33 counts of theft and attempted robbery. In March last year, Levandowski pleaded guilty to one count of theft of trade secrets and agreed to download thousands of Google internal documents on his computer. In addition to the 18-month sentence, he was also ordered to pay a $ 95,000 and $ 756,500 fine in return. The judge granted Levandowski’s release from prison until the end of corona virus epidemic.
“Mr. Levandowski has paid dearly for what he has done and wants to offer his skills to advance the good of the community,” the White House words on the last day of the Trump administration’s proclamation of pardon along with tens yes one. The White House called Levandowski “an American businessman who is leading Google’s efforts to develop driving technology.”
Some of the people who are helping to pardon Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, Trump’s longtime ally, and founder of Oculus Palmer Luckey, who donated money to pro-Trump non-profit related alt-right.
Waymo’s spokesman declined to comment on Levandowski’s pardon. Uber did not respond to a request for comment.
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