Billionaire Peter Thiel recommended President Trump pardon former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski. The judge called it "the biggest trade-secret crime I have ever seen."
As an employee, Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 files containing the intellectual property of Google's former self-driving car division, Waymo, before leaving to found Otto, which was soon acquired by Uber.
Thiel is a private equity underwriter (PEU) with The Founder's Fund and Mithril Capital
Last year Trump granted clemency at the request of billionaire David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a politically connected private equity underwriter.
U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday granted clemency to the so-called junk bond king Michael Milken, among a spate of pardons. Milken, 73, was sentenced in 1990 to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud and racketeering charges — of which he ultimately served only 22 months. His pardon was backed by a number of high-profile figures, including media baron Rupert Murdoch and Carlyle Group chairman David Rubenstein.
The billionaire PEU class has had outsized influence on public policy for two decades. Trump tax cuts primarily benefited the super wealthy.
Billionaires not only make policy, they use their power to push pardons.
Update 9-28-21: Milken got mention as a bad guy in 2010 for rumor mongering and naked short selling.
Update 5-30-22: Billionaire Elon Mush tweeted
it is morally wrong and dumb” to use the word “billionaire” as a
pejorative, adding, “If the reason for it is building products that make
millions of people happy.” What if the reason for that billionaire is
decades of preferred taxation? What if that billion in wealth arose
from surprise medical billing?
