Uber paid off ex-employee to ‘settle’ blackmailing situation

The high-profile court battle between Uber and Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, was rocked on Wednesday when an Uber executive revealed a former employee tried to extort cash in return for not going public with accusations that the ride-hailing company was involved in criminal actions.

The courtroom drama intensified moments later when Angela Padilla, Uber’s deputy general counsel, testified at the hearing that Uber paid the former employee, Richard Jacobs, $4.5 million to settle the matter — despite the company, she said, having determined the claims were bogus.

“Does Uber pay money to extortionists?” Charles Verhoeven, Waymo’s lawyer, asked Padilla, according to reports.

“We really try not to,” Padilla replied at the hearing in San Francisco federal court.

Jacobs’ 27-page letter claimed Uber trained employees to steal trade secrets and then hide their activities.

“So you just paid him to resolve the claims?” Verhoeven asked, according to a report by ArsTechnica.

“Correct,” Padilla said. Jacobs was later hired as a consultant.

The testimony irritated Judge William Alsup, who told Padilla he couldn’t “trust anything you say because it’s been proven wrong so many times.”

Alsup remarked to Uber during the hearing, “You’re just making the impression that this is a total cover-up.”

“That is a lot of money,” Alsup said, referring to the settlement. “And people don’t pay that kind of money for BS. And you certainly don’t hire them as consultants if you think everything they’ve got to contribute is BS.”

Waymo has accused Uber of stealing confidential information about its self-driving car designs by hiring former Waymo executive Anthony Levandowski — who downloaded 14,000 files just prior to exiting the company.

Federal prosecutors are also investigating the matter, raising the possibility of criminal charges.

Uber has denied that it used Waymo trade secrets in its autonomous vehicle program.

Judge Alsup delayed the start of the trial until Feb. 5 after discovering on Tuesday that Uber may have hidden some evidence.

Uber has been rocked in recent months by several controversies.

In January, hundreds of thousands of users deleted the app after a high-profile gaffe in which Uber opted to turn off surge pricing while taxi drivers were boycotting JFK Airport in response to President Trump’s first travel ban, resulting in Uber undermining the protest.

Before the company was able to recover from the JFK incident, Susan Fowler wrote a scathing blog post about the toxic environment she encountered while working at Uber. It set the ball rolling for former Chief Executive Travis Kalanick’s eventual exit in June.