In his last day as the President of the United States President Trump fully pardoned self-driving car engineer Anthony Levandowski who had been sentenced for stealing trade secrets from Alphabet’s Inc. (GOOGL) self-driving unit Waymo.
Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison last August after he was found guilty of stealing trade secrets from Waymo where he co-founded the self-driving unit and served as the technical leader.
He is said to have stolen the secretes moments before he left Waymo and joined self-driving unit of Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) which is Waymo’s rival.
Citing court filing, Levandowski transferred more than 14,000 Google files to his personal laptop shortly before he left Waymo. Among the files include product designs and development schedules.
Back in March, 40 year old Levandowski pleaded guilty of the charges leveled against him however the judge who sentenced him said he could not enter custody until the coronavirus pandemic receded.
According to the statement issued by the White House, Levendowski is an American entrepreneur who led Google’s efforts to create self-driving technology and he had paid a significant price for his actions and plans to devote his talents to advance the public good.
In general, President Trump issued 73 pardons on his last day as President of the United States.
