Google engineer who left for Uber ordered to pay $179M for trade secrets

Anthony Levandowski has filed for bankruptcy

An engineer accused of stealing proprietary information from the Google-owned Waymo when he left the company for a job at Uber has filed for bankruptcy and a judge has ordered him to pay $179 million to Google.

Anthony Levandowski filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The move comes as Levandowski is facing both criminal charges and the sizeable claims from Google.

Former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski leaves the federal court after his arraignment hearing in San Jose, California, Aug. 27, 2019. (REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

EX-UBER WORKER ACCUSED OF STEALING GOOGLE SELF-DRIVING TRADE SECRETS

The amount the judge ruled Levandowski owns his former employer has already increased by $52 million due largely to interest, according to the report.

Levandowski is facing 33 counts of attempted theft and attempted theft of trade secrets in the criminal case. If convicted, that could cost him $250,000 plus more restitution, including as much as 10 years in prison.

Uber fired Levandowski in 2017 after he refused to follow a court order.

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FOX Business’ Brittany De Lea contributed to this report.