In December 2016, Uber paid the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin and asked them to sign a nondisclosure agreement falsely stating they did not take or store any data. The trial evidence showed that Sullivan justified the payoff as part of Uber's "bug bounty program," which rewards responsible hackers and researchers who discover security vulnerabilities, but the payment was over 10 times the program's award cap. The government also presented evidence that Sullivan was aware that the hackers had hacked and extorted other companies as well. Dara Khrosrowshahi, who became CEO in August 2017, testified at trial that he learned of the breach from a special committee shortly after beginning his tenure and promptly launched an independent investigation. Sullivan was terminated after the investigation determined that he provided incomplete and misleading details about the breach. In November 2017 Khrosrowshahi announced the breach in a blog post and Uber subsequently disclosed the incident to the FTC.