{"id":158833,"date":"2021-01-20T16:45:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T13:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/trump-pardons-convicted-ex-google-engineer-anthony-levandowski\/"},"modified":"2021-01-20T16:45:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T13:45:21","slug":"trump-pardons-convicted-ex-google-engineer-anthony-levandowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/trump-pardons-convicted-ex-google-engineer-anthony-levandowski\/","title":{"rendered":"#Trump pardons convicted ex-Google engineer Anthony Levandowski"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Trump pardons convicted ex-Google engineer Anthony Levandowski<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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President Trump pardoned a former Google engineer who was convicted of what a federal judge called the \u201cbiggest trade secret crime\u201d he had ever seen.<\/p>\n

Anthony Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison last August for stealing documents from Google\u2019s self-driving car unit, Waymo, before he went to work for ride-hailing giant Uber.<\/p>\n

Trump granted him a full pardon early Wednesday morning because he had \u201cpaid a significant price for his actions and plans to devote his talents to advance the public good,\u201d according to a statement from the White House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family and I are grateful for the opportunity to move forward, and thankful to the President and others who supported and advocated on my behalf,\u201d Levandowski said on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several tech industry figures \u201cstrongly supported\u201d Levandowski\u2019s pardon, including venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey and Hollywood agent-turned-investor Michael Ovitz, the White House said.<\/p>\n

The White House also noted that US District Judge William Alsup called Levandowski, 40, a \u201cbrilliant, groundbreaking engineer that our country needs\u201d when he handed down his prison sentence.<\/p>\n

But the statement didn\u2019t mention that Alsup refused to give Levandowski a lighter penalty because doing so would have given \u201ca green light to every future brilliant engineer to steal trade secrets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen,\u201d Alsup said in court. \u201cThis was not small. This was massive in scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alsup had allowed Levandowski to wait until the coronavirus pandemic had subsided to start his prison term.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony
Anthony Levandowski was among 143 people who received pardons or commutations from Donald Trump on January 19, 2021.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The feds accused Levandowski of download<\/a>ing 14,000 Waymo files as he prepared to leave Google in 2016. He then formed an autonomous trucking company called Otto that was promptly acquired by Uber.<\/p>\n

Levandowski was facing 33 counts, with a maximum sentence of 10 years apiece, but pleaded guilty last March to just one, which accused him of downloading to his personal computer a file that tracked technical goals for Google\u2019s self-driving project.<\/p>\n

Levandowski admitted that he downloaded the file with the intent to use it to benefit himself and Uber, prosecutors have said. He\u2019s also been ordered to pay $179 million to Google, a punishment that led him to file for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Levandowski was among 143 people who received pardons or commutations from Trump on Wednesday, a list that also includes rapper Lil Wayne and former White House strategist Steve Bannon.<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/em>\n <\/div>\n