SAN FRANCISCO — A rare order from a federal judge alerting prosecutors to possible criminal misconduct by Uber or a key executive deepens the turmoil swirling around the ride-hailing company at a time when it’s grappling with other legal problems.
District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco referred a civil case filed against Uber by Waymo to the U.S. Attorney’s Office “for investigation of possible theft of trade secrets.” It threatens to trigger a second U.S. government investigation of Uber.
At stake is Uber’s estimated $68 billion valuation, a possible public stock offering and the future of its self-driving car program.
Waymo, a self-driving car company owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., sued Uber in February alleging that Uber is using stolen self-driving technology to build its own fleet of autonomous cars.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Experts say prosecutors are likely to follow up on Alsup’s order and launch an investigation. The probe, combined with other legal and image woes, could threaten the San Francisco company’s existence if investors leave, criminal charges bring huge fines and legal action stalls autonomous car research, experts say.
Uber wouldn’t comment Friday on a possible criminal probe. Federal prosecutors already have requested information from at least two cities about use of phony software to thwart city officials looking at whether Uber was following local regulations.
Alsup wrote in his order that he wasn’t taking a position on whether prosecution was warranted.
Alsup, 71, has gained a reputation as a no-nonsense judge since he was appointed to the bench in 1999 by President Bill Clinton. The Harvard Law graduate has experience in trials involving high-profile technology companies, including a 2012 patent and copyright infringement case pitting Oracle against Google.
For a judge to take such a public step, he must have more than a whiff of criminal activity, legal experts say. Prosecutors get many tips, but rarely do they come from a judge who is familiar with evidence and the legal elements of what is a crime.
“This is not some private informant that slipped an envelope under the door at midnight. This is public and it’s a judge,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan law and business professor.
An investigation would siphon executive resources at Uber just as CEO Travis Kalanick faces other challenges, said John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor who specializes in white-collar crime and corporate governance. “The possibility that you could get criminally indicted would be exactly the wrong thing for Uber.”
In addition to the apparent inquiry into the software called “Greyball” to impede city inspectors, Uber still has to deal with Waymo’s high-stakes espionage lawsuit. It alleges that Uber is using trade secrets stolen by former Google engineer,Anthony Levandowski, who formed his own company, which was bought by Uber for $680 million.
After that deal, Levandowski began to oversee Uber’s self-driving car division.
Waymo contends that before leaving Google last year, Levandowski downloaded 14,000 documents with details of a navigational tool called Lidar that robotic cars need to see what’s around them.
Uber has vehemently denied using Waymo’s ideas, maintaining that its Lidar is radically different.
