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Comment by sushid | Hacker News Reader

The most eye-catching part of the article was the fact that "Levandowski was able to collect more than $120 million in incentive pay from Google." Wow! I knew that competition was fierce but not hundreds of millions of dollars fierce.

That and his chunk of the $680MM acquisition price for Otto means his venture was well worth it as long as he can avoid jail time.

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In one of their financial earnings calls, Google made veiled reference to the fact that the incentive structure for the self-driving venture was wildly out of whack and they were taking steps to correct it. This looks like definitely one instance of that.

Link: http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/13/14599186/google-waymo-self...

Is this true? Will he not end up losing most of it in a settlement? If Google can prove he stole their ip (which looks pretty damn likely right now) are they not entitled to any money he made from the use of it?

This is much more than just money. If I understand correctly, we're talking about a felony here, so it's beyond just money. He could end up behind bars.

Even with jail time it will be worth it for him personally.

How so? If he's found guilty the 680 million, he and his investors, received from Uber is obviously going to be rescinded. The 120 million he received from Google may also be challenged considering his deception and the side businesses he was running.

they still have to be able to collect. and knowing how profligate Uber is with spending, i wouldn't be surprised if a large part of the Otto acquisition was immediate earnout for Levandowski.

frankly, if he comes out with $10MM after it's all said and done, he's still ahead.

it's totally possible for this to happen.

I'm sure he'll land on his feet. His reputation and trustworthiness, however, will forever be tarnished. And if he's convicted his career is pretty much over.

Do you need a career if you have that much money?

For the highly aspirational type, $10M is really not a lot of money in SV these days (it is however still a great deal of money for a reasonable sort of person).

Anyone who thinks 10 mill is nkt a lot of money needs to get their head out of their ass and live a day in the lives of those who would greet 10k as an unbelievable benefice. Not that they would understand those $5 words

What kind of word is "nkt"?

must be a typo of "not", most likely via a phone.

Yep, on my phone k is just below o on the godawful on-screen keyboard

He could always run for president of the United States.

I don't think it's obvious either of those will happen, even if he admits to stealing all those documents.

There are both civil and criminal possibilities here, and various avenues where it might happen. What actually happens though? I don't think the HN crowd (myself included) knows.

I've tried to be an amateur lawyer before and guess outcomes. It works just about as well as amateur programming .

True, but I don't think you need to be an amateur lawyer to deduce that if the company, you just sold, was based on stolen technology then you're screwed legally and financially. And from what we know right now it seems that it was.

I assume opposing counsel has an opinion on how much of the value was based on stolen documents, and how much was not.

I totally get what you're saying. But I mostly don't see verdicts, settlement amounts, forfeitures, and the like following common sense.

Well one things for certain, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be on the opposite side from Google's lawyers, especially when it's something as big as self driving cars, a project they been investing on for almost a decade.

I agree, it looks grim. Actually losing half a billion+, though, depends on some hairball of laws, judges, juristictions, and so forth...around actual damages, punitive measures, forfeiture in a separate criminal case, etc. Handslaps aren't uncommon, and neither are the opposite...awards that seem too large. There's also the degree to which Uber is culpable (provably, legally) vs Levandowski personally.

Would be interested in hearing a prediction from an IP lawyer.

Civil asset forfeiture might result in all his money being taken from him.

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