Washington:
US President Donald Trump mentioned on Wednesday he had offered a complete pardon to a former Google engineer sentenced for stealing a trade secret on self-driving automobiles months ahead of he briefly headed Uber Technologies Inc’s rival unit.
Anthony Levandowski, 40, was sentenced in August to 18 months in prison just after pleading guilty in March. He was not in custody but a judge had mentioned he could enter custody when the COVID-19 pandemic subsided.
The White House mentioned Levandowski had “paid a significant price for his actions and plans to devote his talents to advance the public good.” Alphabet Inc’s Waymo, a self-driving auto technologies unit spun out of Google, did not quickly respond to a request for comment.
The pardon was backed by various leaders in the technologies market who have supported Trump, like investors Peter Thiel and Blake Masters and entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, according to the White House.
Levandowski transferred more than 14,000 Google files, like improvement schedules and solution styles, to his private laptop ahead of he left, and even though negotiating a new part with Uber.
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