David Anderson, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, at a press conference announcing federal charges against former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski on Aug. 27, 2019. (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

Anthony Levandowski, the former head of Google's autonomous vehicle unit who was at the center of the company's high-profile dispute with Uber Technologies, has been hit with federal trade-secret theft charges.

In an indictment returned Aug. 15 and unsealed Monday, Levandowski faces 33 counts of stealing or trying to steal Google's trade secrets. The indictment claims that Levandowski, a founding member of Google's "Project Chauffeur" autonomous vehicle project, had decided to leave the company no later than September 2015 and used the time up until his January 2017 departure to take thousands of company files from Google.

"All of us have the right to change jobs," said U.S. Attorney David Anderson of the Northern District of California, in a press statement announcing the charges. "None of us has the right to fill our pockets on the way out the door. Theft is not innovation."

Anderson said at a press conference Tuesday morning that both Uber and Google had been "responsive" to the office's investigation and requests for documents. 

Levandowski was allowed to self-surrender and is set to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins.

Levandowski was a pivotal—though silent—player in the civil dispute between Google's Waymo subsidiary and Uber. Waymo accused Levandowski of downloading 14,000 company files before leaving Google in 2016 to start a new company, Otto, which he quickly sold to Uber for $680 million. Levandowski formally invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the civil dispute and refused to provide testimony. That decision resulted in Levandowski being first removed from all development of laser-based vision technology at Uber in April 2017, and then terminated by the company the next month. U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California, who oversaw the civil dispute, referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office for a potential criminal probe.  

Miles Ehrlich. (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

Levandowski's lawyers, Ismail Ramsey and Miles Ehrlich of Ramsey & Ehrlich, said in a written statement that their client is innocent and they look forward to defending him at trial.

"This case rehashes claims already discredited in a civil case that settled more than a year and a half ago," they said. "The downloads at issue occurred while Anthony was still working at Google—when he and his team were authorized to use the information. None of these supposedly secret files ever went to Uber or to any other company."

Levandowski is also being represented by Cristina Arguedas of Arguedas, Cassman, Headley & Goldman.

A spokesperson from Uber said the company has been cooperating with the government's investigation and will continue to do so.

A spokesperson for Waymo said that the company has "always believed competition should be fueled by innovation, and we appreciate the work of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI on this case." 

Uber ultimately agreed to pay about $244.8 million in stock to Waymo one week into what was expected to be a three-week trial and to have an independent monitor ensure that no Waymo technology made its way into its autonomous vehicle program. Uber disclosed in its initial public offering documents that it could possibly be on the hook for an additional $127 million award Google won against Levandowski in arbitration—an award Levandowski's lawyers claimed Uber owed as part of an indemnification agreement included in the deal to purchase Levandowski's company.

The federal criminal case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine Wawrzyniak, Andrew Dawson and Amie Rooney, members of the corporate fraud strike force launched by Anderson earlier this year to investigate and prosecute white-collar cases.