From Uber to Prison: The downfall of ex-Google engineer Anthony Levandowski

Automous driving engineer Anthony Levandowski has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for tre ft. He allegedly stole tre secrets from Google as he defected to Uber Techlogies Inc, with case becoming a high profile criminal case in Silicon Valley. Levandowski was working with Alphabet Inc. for driverless-car unit, Waymo.

'ft of Intellectual Property'

As per US media, Anthony Levandowski was a founding member of Google's self-driving car assignment. He left company in 2016 but before he left he allegedly took nearly 10 GB confidential files with him. He copied data that contained blueprints, testing documents and design files among or things onto his personal laptop before he left firm.

After leaving Waymo, Levandowski started working with Uber as a part of ir robocar project. Uber Techlogies Inc. allegedly profited from this move but Anthony Levandowski was fired by company in 2017 due to this high profile case. After being fired from Uber he started a second company of his own, an automous trucking company called Pronto. Previously he owned a company named Otto which was acquired by Uber Techlogies Inc. before he was hired by m, as per reports in US media.

According to law, Levandowski h right to information that he stole from Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. as y were rightful owner of that data. Alphabet Inc. also filed a case against Uber Techlogies Inc. because of profit y allegedly me from stolen data. Later on both companies settled case in 2018 after Uber agreed to pay Google 0.34% of its equity which was about $245 million. Google also went on to file a case against Anthony Levandowski for tre secret ft and he was charged with 33 counts out of which he pleed guilty for one. learned judge presiding over case said that this was one of biggest tre secret crime that he has ever come across. He n instructed Levandowski to pay $179 Million in dams to Alphabet Inc.

A Bankrupt Convicted Felon

Levandowski ended up spending a few years in fighting legal battles. He received a punishment to pay $179 Million to Google for $120 Million that company spent on him as well as dams. Anthony Levandowski h to file for bankruptcy soon after  judgment was passed which led to 18 months prison sentence. He also requested court for home confinement due to surge in COVID-19 cases in prison. He claimed that he has suffered from pneumonia in past that put him at a higher risk of contracting coronavirus which could amount to a 'death sentence'. presiding judge ruled that Levandowski could start his custodial sentence after coronavirus cases in prison were wiped away. As per US media reports, judge also said that a n-custodial sentence would t be deterrent eugh to prevent people from stealing tre secrets. 

(With inputs from ncies)