Former Google engineer files for bankruptcy as legal and financial troubles pile up

The former Google LLC engineer whose defection to Uber Technologies Inc. prompted civil ligation by his former employer and criminal charges for trade secrets theft of self-driving car information has filed for bankruptcy after a San Francisco County judge affirmed a $179 million judgment against him by an arbitration panel.

Anthony S. Levandowski filed for bankruptcy late Wednesday, hours after Superior Court Judge Ethan P. Schulman affirmed the JAMS arbitration panel's decision earlier in the day in Google's suit alleging breach of his employment agreement, fraud and other state law violations. In re: Anthony Scott Levandowski, 20-30242 (N.D. Bankruptcy Court, filed March 4, 2020).

He is also locked in a battle with Uber over whether he should be indemnified for the damages Alphabet Inc.-owned Google was awarded in the civil case.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this week, Uber disclosed the company and Levandowski are at odds over whether it must indemnify him for damages in the case, which Google filed in 2016.

Levandowski's attorney, I. Neel Chatterjee of Goodwin Procter LLP, distinguished the arbitration and civil suit with the ongoing criminal case.

"This arbitration was not about trade secrets but about employees leaving Google for new opportunities and an engineer being used as a pawn by two tech giants," Chatterjee said in a statement.

"Google fought tooth and nail to take back every penny paid to Anthony for his multi-billion-dollar contributions and now Uber is refusing to indemnify Anthony despite explicitly agreeing to do so," he added. "Anthony had no choice but to file for bankruptcy to protect his rights as he pursues the relief he is legally entitled to."

Suzanne Philion, a spokeswoman for Google subsidiary Waymo, the self-driving car company, hailed Schulman's confirmation of the "significant judgment" against Levandowski.

Schulman awarded $127.3 million in disgorgement and restitution, $45.5 million in pre-award interest, $4.2 million in post-award interest, $1.87 million in attorney fees and $57,468 in legal costs. Google LLC v. Levandowski et al., CPF-20-516982 (San Francisco Co. Sup. Ct., filed Jan. 9, 2020).

The panel was comprised of retired U.S. District Judge W. James Ware, retired Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Read Ambler and Alexander L. Brainerd.

A team of Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP attorneys represented Google, led by Robert A. Van Nest, Rachael E. Meny and Thomas E. Gorman.

Trevor R. Fehr filed a notice of appearance Thursday for the government in the bankruptcy case.

Tobias S. Keller, a partner with Keller Benvenutti Kim LLP who represents Levandowski in the bankruptcy case, declined to comment. The filing includes a list of creditors including Google, owed $179.048 million, and his criminal defense attorneys at Ramsey & Ehrlich LLP, who are owed $3 million.

Miles F. Ehrlich still represents Levandowsi in the criminal trade secrets theft case, which is pending in federal court after charges were filed in August. The defendant faces a possible sentence of years in prison if convicted. U.S. v. Levandowski, 19-CR00377 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 15, 2019).

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Hannah L. Blumenstiel on Thursday scheduled a hearing in the bankruptcy case for May 11 in San Francisco.