Three Iranian Engineers Accused of Stealing Google Trade Secrets
According to the Economic Desk of Webangah News Agency, Samaneh Ghandali, 41, her sister Sorour Ghandali, 32, and Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, all residents of San Jose, were arrested on Thursday and appeared in federal district court on the same day.
The indictment identifies the defendants as Iranian nationals. Sorour was in the United States on a non-immigrant student visa. Samaneh later became a U.S. citizen, and Khosravi, her husband, became a lawful permanent resident.
Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that the trio faces charges including conspiracy to steal trade secrets, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors allege that the three defendants abused their access within prominent technology companies, which develop processors for mobile computers, to obtain hundreds of proprietary files. These files reportedly included information related to processor security and cryptography.
Samaneh and Sorour Ghandali previously worked at Google before joining a third company, referred to as Company 3. Khosravi was employed at a separate entity, Company 2, which develops System-on-Chip (SoC) platforms, such as the Snapdragon series, for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Google confirmed in a statement to CNBC that it identified the alleged theft through routine security monitoring before referring the matter to law enforcement. “We have increased our safeguards to protect our confidential information and immediately notified law enforcement once we discovered this incident,” said Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson.
The tech giant also detailed its measures to protect its trade secrets. These include restricting employee access to sensitive data, implementing two-factor authentication for work-related Google accounts, and logging file transfers to third-party platforms like Telegram.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each trade secret-related charge. Obstruction of justice carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years, along with fines of up to $250,000 per count.
