Anthony Levandowski, a former major Google executive who later moved to a company acquired by Uber, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for theft of trade secrets related to the development of technologies for self-driving vehicles. Levandowski was on trial in California following charges against him a couple of years ago by Waymo (a subsidiary of Alphabet, owner of Google) for the theft of patents and trade secrets.
After leaving Google in 2016, Levandowski founded Otto, a startup to develop self-driving trucks, which was then acquired by Uber for about $ 700 million. According to the indictment, Levandowski stole thousands of documents from Waymo / Google to continue his self-driving vehicle projects and allow his startup to quickly catch up with the competition. Waymo's lawsuit had already led Uber to sack Levandowski in 2017 and reach an out-of-court settlement to resolve the dispute.
Delivering the sentencing, San Francisco District Judge William Alsup said Levandowski's crimes were “the largest theft of trade secrets I have ever seen.” Lewandowski had asked for house arrest, claiming he suffers from pneumonia, but the judge denied them and said he could start serving his sentence in prison once coronavirus infections in the United States slow down.
Google sued Uber
