But Sullivan’s lawyers say that he in no way concealed the incident and that claims that he broke the law stem from Uber’s efforts to recast its image following the turbulent reign of the company’s former CEO Travis Kalanick.
In 2016, Sullivan learned that hackers had gained access to the personal data of about 600,000 Uber drivers and additional personal information associated with 57 million riders and drivers, according to the criminal complaint against him. The two young men responsible for the incident later pleaded guilty to hacking. One of them is expected to testify in the trial.
One of Sullivan’s attorneys said the responsibility for reporting the incident had rested with Uber’s legal team. Sullivan, he argued, properly disclosed the incident to the legal team and others at the company. Angeli said that the notion that Sullivan had concealed the breach was a “narrative” created by Uber’s new executive team and that Khosrowshahi had accused Sullivan of failing to disclose the incident because Khosrowshahi had wanted to distance the company from its past.
Dawson said Sullivan had lied to Khosrowshahi in an email describing the incident to the new Uber CEO, implying that the hackers had not downloaded any data from the company.