Murthy was previously a CTO at Verizon Media, and held executive roles at Gap, American Express, eBay, and Yahoo.
“I’ve been deeply inspired by Varo’s mission to make financial inclusion and opportunity a reality for all — empowering everyone with the tools to move their lives forward,” Murthy said on LinkedIn.
Murthy was at Expedia for three years, helping the Seattle-based travel juggernaut integrate AI into its platform.
Yeah, but that explicitly mentions physical files, not knowledge you've acquired.
Don't take physical files guys. Don't take digital files either. It's pretty simple.
If it's in your head, you're almost assuredly safe. Every prosecution I can find for the Economic Espionage Act has to do with physical files. For you to be the first charged for knowledge in your head (and not running afoul of an NDA, a patent, a non-compete, etc), you'd have to be even more egregious than this guy, and just as valuable. Good luck hitting that bar.
I have news for you. The file itself is real but it's also acting suspiciously like malware. (Opens a second document showing a "hire me!" message and downloading another file)
I was lucky to spin up a VM, open it and I saw that message.
244. Mr. Levandowski therefore seeks a declaration that Uber has no right to rescind the Indemnification Agreement without also rescinding the Otto transaction and returning all consideration received from that deal.
245. In addition, Mr. Levandowski seeks damages, including any consequential damages, arising out of Uber’s rescission of the Otto transaction.
It's my understanding is that Google X is a marketing / PR platform for Google. Google X doesn't ever need to actually produce anything or create any real-world value because their value is in the PR they generate for Google - keeping them positioned through press as a technology company vs. the largest advertising company in the world. Many of the Google X projects are acquisitions/acquihires purchased to continue the narrative. It's why they never ship products and can't get anything out the door. If this works - it'll be one of the first after billions invested. They've done an excellent job I would say.
He downloaded schematics and pcba designs, documents, etc, onto a thumb drive and transferred those contents outside of Google. Call it whatever you want. It’s called theft.
* The files that Levandowski is alleged to have stolen contain drawings and schematics pertaining to circuitry and LIDAR laser-sensors that were used in Google’s self-driving cars. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine, plus restitution, for every count.*
Why are you pulling from an article from last August? There is news happening in real-time about this with updates. The DOJ dropped all those charges. If they could have proven it they wouldn't have allowed a plea. He was accused not convicted...He plead because he's bankrupt from a civil suit with Google and the DOJ let it drop because their case isn't strong enough. Look at the Fitbit case. And funny enough - GOogle went on to buy them just a few months after.
> agreed to plead guilty on Thursday to taking sensitive documents
> Prosecutors accused Levandowski of stealing materials in late 2015 and early 2016 after deciding to leave Google and form his own company
> I downloaded these files with the intent to use them for my own personal benefit, and I understand that I was not authorized to take the files for that purpose
That's the material in the article. Any hints of said thief's brilliance must be elsewhere, if they exist, and the burden to produce them is on those who would claim they should be given weight.
To your point. He started the program. Not that there is no fault - it's just ironic - Google mad people are "stealing" from them and they made billions by stealing all our data... In the end Google ended up shutting down its main SDC rival's entire program, recuperating all their money including employee salary, and raising 2.5 billion. Not too shabby
The document was an open meeting minutes team spreadsheet. It’s how Google runs their teams, tabs like OKRs, Metrics, Weekly Updates, Progress, etc. Definitely a valuable document but trade secret? jail? Bankruptcy? Meanwhile, Waymo just raised 2.5Billion.
Fraud? What? This trial hasn’t even gone to court. You’re making blanket statements about someone’s life based on accusations from a Big Tech company and their PR teams. This person has been accused -not convicted and is going bankrupt because he is fighting Google. I know this is a Bay Area forum - half of you probably work for Google but give me a break. They steal personal information from everyone who uses their products every single day. They buy up an competition - they don’t play fair. They are the largest advertising company in the world - let’s not pretend like they’re more than that. Or they are some virtuous company that wouldn’t personally go after someone who is a threat to them and working with a competitor. Destroying others so theirs is positioned to raise 2 Billion dollars. This guy just got caught in the crossfire. This is just parroting headlines.
Ah, the American "ooga booga" defense. You can never really know anything, since everything is speculation! This is just lawyer-speak!
There is moral hazard written all over this, and you are either too naive to see it or are trying to defend the stacked kangaroo courts of American criminal proceedings for employees of large multinational corporations.
We know that the guy stole proprietary technology and maybe there might have been intentions to use it by Uber, BUT there's no proof tying it to Uber (of course). As always. These guys aren't dumb enough to make the mistakes that Microsoft made in the 90's.
“I’ve been deeply inspired by Varo’s mission to make financial inclusion and opportunity a reality for all — empowering everyone with the tools to move their lives forward,” Murthy said on LinkedIn.
Murthy was at Expedia for three years, helping the Seattle-based travel juggernaut integrate AI into its platform.