NEW YORK (US) – Former head of Uber’s self-driving technology unit, Anthony Levandowski, recently agreed to plead guilty in March for eliciting sensitive documents from his former employer Google before joining Uber. US prosecutors have been seeking imprisonment of 27 months for Anthony, ever since.
According to the court papers filed in the US District Court for Northern District of California, Federal prosecutors are also looking for three years of supervised release and a restitution payment of nearly $756,500 (585,526 pounds) to Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car company Waymo, which has been agreed upon.
Levandowski’s attorneys have sought home confinement for him, extending up to 12 months with an obligation to perform community service, and a $95,000 fine, as per the court papers.
Levandowski’s attorneys wrote, “It is, unfortunately, no exaggeration to say that a prison sentence today can amount to the imposition of a serious health crisis, even a death sentence, given the BOP’s (Federal Bureau of Prisons) current inability to control the spread of the coronavirus.”
The case was filed after accusations from Google and its sister company Waymo in 2017 that Uber induced life to its own self-driving car development with trade secrets and staff that Levandowski unlawfully derived from Google.
Company stock was issued to Alphabet by Uber and revamped its software so as to settle the case. The Department of Justice later announced a 33-count criminal indictment against Levandowski.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.