In a surprise move, Anthony Levandowski, the former head of Uber Technologies Inc.’s autonomous vehicle unit who was convicted and jailed for stealing corporate secrets from Alphabet Inc. was pardoned by now-former President Donald Trump on his last day in office.

Levandowski was charged with trade secret theft charges in August 2019 following an already lengthy court case after Alphabet sued Uber in February 2017.

Alphabet alleged that Uber’s self-driving car project was using “highly specialized” lidar technology that was identical to its own. Levandowski was key to the case, having allegedly stolen the technology from his time working on what was then the Google Car Project, including downloading more than 14,000 design files.

Uber ended up with the technology through its $680 million purchase of self-driving truck startup Otto in 2016, a company founded by Levandowski after he left Google. Uber initially denied that it had the stolen technology but were forced to backtrack after Levandowski pleaded the Fifth Amendment on the stand, leaving it with no strong defense against the allegations.

The court cases between Alphabet and Uber was settled for $245 million in February 2018 after Alphabet had initially been seeking a payment of $1.86 billion.

With ample evidence at hand from the Alphabet-Uber case, the Department of Justice charged Levandowski with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets. As part of a plea dead, Levandowski pleaded guilty in March 2020 to one charge of trade theft with prosecutors seeking a 27-month sentence. Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison in August along with being ordered to pay $756,499 in restitution to Waymo and a fine of $95,000.

Because of COVID-19, Levandowski did not serve prison time because he was required to report to prison to serve his sentence only once the pandemic eased, which as of January 2021 it still hasn’t. With the pardon, he will serve no jail time at all.

The White House said in a press release, since removed from the White House website but reported by Engadget, tech billionaires Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey were among those supporting a pardon for Levandowski.

“Mr. Levandowski is an American entrepreneur who led Google’s efforts to create self-driving technology,” the press release is reported to have said. “Mr. Levandowski pled guilty to a single criminal count arising from civil litigation. Notably, his sentencing judge called him a ‘brilliant, groundbreaking engineer that our country needs.’ Mr. Levandowski has paid a significant price for his actions and plans to devote his talents to advance the public good.”

Photo: Uber