Google Engineers Indicted for Trade Secret Theft and Iran Ties

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Three Former Tech Employees Indicted for Alleged Trade Secret Theft and Transfer to Iran

A federal grand jury has indicted three individuals, including two former Google engineers and the husband of one of the engineers, for allegedly conspiring to steal trade secrets from Google and other technology companies and transferring the information to unauthorized locations, including Iran.

Defendants and Charges

Samaneh Ghandali, Mohammadjavad Khosravi, and Soroor Ghandali, all Iranian nationals residing in San Jose, California, were arrested and made their initial appearances in federal district court. The indictment alleges that the defendants used their employment to obtain access to confidential and sensitive information, including trade secrets related to processor security and cryptography.

According to the US Department of Justice, the defendants exfiltrated confidential documents from Google and other technology companies to unauthorized third-party and personal locations, including devices associated with each other’s employers and locations in Iran.

The stolen trade secrets pertained to Google’s Tensor processor for Pixel phones.

Methods of Theft and Concealment

The indictment alleges that Samaneh Ghandali transferred hundreds of files, including Google trade secrets, to a third-party communications platform, while Soroor Ghandali exfiltrated numerous Google-related files containing trade secrets to the same channels. The defendants then concealed their actions by submitting false affidavits, destroying exfiltrated files, and manually photographing screens containing the documents’ contents.

The investigation revealed that after Google’s internal security systems detected Samaneh Ghandali’s activity and revoked her access to company resources in August 2023, she allegedly executed a signed affidavit claiming she had not shared Google’s confidential information with anyone outside the company.

The defendants also performed online searches and visited websites about deleting communications and data, including queries related to the duration for which a cellular service provider kept messages.

Potential Sentencing

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of trade secret theft charges and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the count of obstruction of justice.

Related Case

This case marks the second recent instance of a former Google engineer being charged with trade secret theft. In a separate case, Linwei Ding was convicted of stealing thousands of Google’s confidential documents to build a startup in China.