At a glance
- Case: United States v. Anthony Scott Levandowski (U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California)
- Matter type: Theft of trade secrets by a departing employee
- What was taken: Thousands of files from Google's self-driving car program, downloaded to a personal laptop
- Outcome: Guilty plea to one count of trade secret theft; 18 months in prison; $95,000 fine; $756,499.22 in restitution to Waymo
This is a public case, summarized from the U.S. Department of Justice announcement. It is not a Gemean client matter. We share it because it shows how the files an employee takes on the way out can become the center of a case.
What happened
According to the Department of Justice, Anthony Levandowski worked on Google's self-driving car program, known as Project Chauffeur, from 2009 to 2016. In 2016, as he prepared to leave Google, he downloaded thousands of files related to the program from an internal, password-protected Google server onto his personal laptop.
Among them was a confidential document titled "Chauffeur TL weekly updates – Q4 2015," which contained details on the status of the project. Prosecutors stated that he took the files intending to use them for his own benefit and for the benefit of Uber Technologies.
How it ended
Levandowski was charged in 2019 with 33 counts of trade secret theft. He pleaded guilty to one count, and the remaining counts were dismissed. In August 2020 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, fined $95,000, and ordered to pay $756,499.22 in restitution to Waymo. At sentencing, Judge William H. Alsup called it "the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen."
What the case shows
The record of what was taken is specific. The case did not rest on a general claim that an employee had access to confidential information. It turned on specific files, a specific server, a specific document title, and a personal device.
Personal devices matter. The files were downloaded to a personal laptop. Investigations limited to company-issued equipment can miss exactly the transfers that matter most.
Timing is the story. The downloads happened as the employee prepared to leave. Access and transfer activity in the weeks before a resignation is often the most important evidence in a trade secret matter.
Preservation comes first. The server logs, device data, and file records that support a case like this only help if they are preserved before devices are wiped, accounts are deprovisioned, or logs roll off.
How Gemean helps
Gemean's digital forensics and mobile forensics teams investigate departing employee and trade secret matters for law firms and corporate legal departments: preserving devices and cloud accounts, reconstructing file access and transfer activity, and reporting findings in a form that holds up to scrutiny.
If a key employee has just resigned, or you want to build forensic preservation into offboarding, connect with our experts at https://bit.ly/4qogx0H.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney's Office, N.D. Cal., 'Former Uber Executive Sentenced To 18 Months In Jail For Trade Secret Theft From Google' (Aug 4, 2020): https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-uber-executive-sentenced-18-months-jail-trade-secret-theft-google
- Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016, 18 U.S.C. § 1836: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1836
