Former Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski leaves federal court after his court hearing in San Jose
Reuters / Stephen Lam
President Donald Trump has pardoned Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer sentenced to prison for stealing driverless car-related trade secrets from the search giant.
On Wednesday, Levandowksi was among dozens of individuals who received Trump’s full pardon his last night at the White House.
The White House included technology billionaire Peter Thiel and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey as supporters of Levandowski’s pardon. Thiel was a major advocate and adviser for the 2016 campaign, but did not support Trump’s re-election effort. Luckey organized a fundraiser for Trump just weeks before the 2020 election.
Levandowski said in a tweet, “My family and I are grateful for the opportunity to move on and thank the president and others who supported and defended my name.”
In August, Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing trade secrets. He transferred thousands of files from Google before leaving the company. He went on to found a start-up called Otto which was acquired by Uber.
Google’s autonomous car unit, Waymo, accused Uber of using these trade secrets in its driverless vehicle technology, which Uber denied. In 2018, Uber and Waymo settled their legal dispute. But Levandowski, who was fired from Uber in 2017, had to face criminal charges.
The sentencing judge in Levandowski’s case called it “the biggest trade secret crime I’ve ever seen.”
Trump gave total pardon to Levandowski, calling him “an American businessman who led Google’s efforts to create autonomous technology.”
“Mr. Levandowski pleaded guilty to a single criminal offense arising from a civil litigation. In particular, his sentencing judge called him a” brilliant and innovative engineer our country needs. “Levandowski has paid a price significant for his actions and plans to dedicate his talents to advancing the public good. “
In March, Levandowski filed for bankruptcy after a court ruled he had to pay $ 179 million to Google for his separation from Waymo.