Ex-Uber Executive From North Bay Sentenced For Stealing Secrets

MARIN COUNTY, CA — A former Uber engineer who pleaded guilty in federal court in San Francisco to stealing a trade secret from Google related to self-driving cars has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, according to prosecutors.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup sentenced Anthony Levandowski and also ordered him to pay a $95,000 fine and $756,499.22 in restitution to Google's self-driving program, Waymo.

Levandowski, 40, of Marin County, was a lead engineer in Google's self-driving car program for seven years until he resigned in 2016. Prior to resigning, he admitted to downloading thousands of confidential files belonging to Google related to its self-driving car program to benefit himself and Uber, prosecutors said.

Levandowski joined Uber seven months later to work on its rival driverless car program. Prosecutors described Levandowski's actions as "brazen and shocking."

"This is the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen. This was not small. This was massive in scale," Alsup said in a statement.

Because of COVID-19, Levandowski will serve his sentence at a future date, when risks have subsided, according to prosecutors.

"We're thankful to Judge Alsup for allowing Anthony to stay out of custody for now, given the extraordinary circumstances brought on by the pandemic," Levandowski's attorneys with the law firm Ismail Ramsey and Miles Ehrlich Ramsey and Ehrlich LLP said in a statement. "Anthony deeply regrets his past decisions and, while we are saddened that he will to have to spend time in prison, Anthony remains committed to his life's mission of building innovative technologies to improve people's lives."

Federal prosecutors initially filed 33 charges of trade secrets theft against Levandowski in 2019, but in March of this year announced they'd dismiss 32 charges in lieu of his guilty plea.

In addition to his sentence, fine and restitution, Levandowski has also been sentenced to a 3-year period of supervised release, during which time he'll be required to give speeches on "Why I Went to Federal Prison," prosecutors said.

In 2017, Uber fired Levandowski after he refused to cooperate with an internal investigation after Waymo filed a civil lawsuit accusing Uber of stealing trade secrets. Although Levandowski was not a defendant in that case, the suit alleged Uber gained trade secrets through him.

The two companies settled in 2018, with Uber agreeing to give Waymo $245 million in stock.

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