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President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardon Anthony Levandowski, former Google and Uber engineer, self-driving car expert Sentenced By August 2020, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing Google’s trade secrets.
Levandowski pioneered self-driving car technology at Google and made millions of dollars. He left the company and founded the self-driving truck startup Otto, which he sold to the ride-hailing giant Uber in 2016 for approximately US$680 million. A year later, Waymo, Google’s self-driving car division Sue Uber Alleged that Levandowski took thousands of Google files, including confidential product designs, before he left.
When Uber offered Waymo nearly $250 million in stock and agreed not to infringe the company’s intellectual property rights, the two companies finally reached a settlement.
But in August 2019, federal prosecutors charged Levandowski with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft.Last March, Lewandowski pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing trade secrets and pleaded guilty to downloading thousands of internal Google files On his personal computerIn addition to the 18-month sentence, he was also ordered to pay a fine of US$95,000 and a compensation of US$756,500.The judge agreed to release Levandowski from prison until the end of the trial Coronavirus pandemic.
“Mr. Lewandowski paid a huge price for his actions and plans to use his talents to promote the public good,” the White House said in a statement. statement Announcing the pardon on the last day of Trump’s presidency a lot of of otherThe White House called Lewandowski “an American entrepreneur who led Google’s efforts to create autonomous driving technology.”
Among those who support pardons are Silicon Valley billionaires Peter Thiel, A longtime Trump supporter and founder of Oculus Palmer Laki, He once donated to pro-Trump non-profit organizations related to the alternative right.
A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment on Levandowski’s pardon. Uber did not respond to a request for comment.
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