President Donald Trump Wednesday forgive Anthony Levandowski, formerly an engineer at Google and Uber, and an expert in autonomous vehicles, Sentenced He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in August 2020 for stealing Google’s trade secrets.

Levandowski pioneered the development of self-driving car technology at Google and made millions of dollars. He resigned from the company and founded the self-driving truck startup Otto, which was sold to ride-hailing giant Uber in 2016 for $680 million. A year later, Waymo, Google’s self-driving car division Suing Uber Alleged that Levandowski had taken thousands of Google files with him before he left, including confidential product designs.

When Uber offered Waymo nearly $250 million in stock, the two companies finally reached a settlement, and they agreed not to infringe the company’s intellectual property rights.

But in August 2019, federal prosecutors charged Levandowski with 33 thefts and attempted thefts.Last March, Levandowski pleaded guilty to a trade secret theft and pleaded guilty to downloading thousands of internal Google files To his personal computer. In addition to being sentenced to 18 months in prison, he was also fined US$95,000 and US$756,500 in compensation. The judge agreed to release Lewandowski from prison until the end of the trial. Coronavirus pandemic.

“Mr. Lewandowski paid a heavy price for his actions and plans to use his talents to promote the public good. statement Announced the pardon on the last day of Trump’s presidency and a lot of of other. The White House called Lewandowski an “American entrepreneur who led Google’s efforts to create autonomous driving technology.”

People who support pardons include Silicon Valley billionaires Peter ThielA long-term supporter of Trump and the founder of Oculus Palmer Luckey, He once donated money to pro-Trump non-profit organizations related to alt-rights.

A Waymo spokesperson declined to comment on Levandowski’s pardon. Uber did not respond to a request for comment.