Otto
- The former Google and Uber executive at the center of a massive self-driving car controversy was indicted on allegations of theft of trade secrets, US officials said Tuesday.
- Anthony Levandowski stole 14,000 confidential files when he left Waymo, Google’s self-driving startup, in 2016, the Department of Justice alleges.
- If convicted, he could face up to a decade in prison.
- Visit Businessinsider.com for more stories.
Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer and founding member of the company’s self-driving car project, has been indicted on accusations of trade secrets theft, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
The US Attorney for the Northern District of California said Levandowski stole roughly 14,000 "engineering, manufacturing, and business files" from Google’s self-driving unit, later rebranded as Waymo, when he resigned without notice to found Otto, which would later be acquired by Uber.
"All of us have the right to change jobs," U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a press release. "None of us has the right to fill our pockets on the way out the door. Theft is not innovation."
If convicted, the 29-year-old could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each violation, prosecutors said.
For years, Levandowski has been at the center of a fight between Uber and Google after the search giant accused him or stealing technology. Levandowski was fired by Uber in May 2017, roughly three months after Waymo’s lawsuit was filed, and the case went to trial in February 2018. The two companies eventually reached a settlement outside of the court system.
Levandowski’s lawyer released the following statement:
For more than a decade, Anthony Levandowski has been an industry-leading innovator in self-driving technologies. He didn’t steal anything, from anyone.
The case rehashes claims already discredited in a civil case that settled more than a year and a half ago. The downloads at issue occurred while Anthony was still working at Google — when he and his team were authorized to use that information. None of these supposedly secret files ever went to Uber or to any other company.
Over these last couple years, Anthony has continued to lead the development of new and innovative safe-driving technologies to advance this ground-breaking industry. Anthony is innocent, and we look forward to proving it at trial.
In a statement, Uber said it has "cooperated with the government throughout their investigation and will continue to do so."
A Waymo spokesperson said: "We have always believed competition should be fueled by innovation, and we appreciate the work of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI on this case."
Since parting ways with Uber, Levandowski has expressed interest in starting a religion centered around super-smart artificial intelligence. In a 2017 interview with Wired Magazine, his first since the Waymo lawsuit, shed more light on his new church, "Way of the Future."
"Part of it being smarter than us means it will decide how it evolves, but at least we can decide how we act around it," Levandowski told Wired. "I would love for the machine to see us as its beloved elders that it respects and takes care of. We would want this intelligence to say, ‘Humans should still have rights, even though I’m in charge.’"
This story is developing. Check back for updates….
Brittany Chang contrbuted to this report.
Read the full indictment below:
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Source: Business Insider – grapier@businessinsider.com (Graham Rapier)