Two former Google engineers and one of their husbands have been charged in the United States with stealing trade secrets from the search giant and other tech companies and transferring that information to unauthorized locations, including Iran.
Samane Gandari, 41, and her husband Mohammad Javad Khosravi (also known as Mohammad Khosravi), 40, along with her sister Solor Gandari, 32, are charged with theft of trade secrets from Google and other major technology companies, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The three defendants, all Iranian nationals and residents of San Jose, were arrested Thursday and made their first appearances in U.S. District Court in California.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the Gandhari sisters worked at Google before joining another technology company, identified as Company 3. Mr Khosravi is said to have worked for another company (Company 2). All three found employment in the field of mobile computer processors.
“As part of a scheme to commit trade secret theft, the defendants used their employment to gain access to confidential information,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
“Defendants then leaked confidential documents containing trade secrets related to processor security, encryption, and other technology from Google and other technology companies to unauthorized third parties and private locations (including work devices associated with each other’s employers) and to Iran.”
In a statement shared with Bloomberg, a Google spokesperson said the company has strengthened security measures to protect sensitive information and immediately notified law enforcement after discovering the incident. The trade secret concerned the company’s Tensor processors for Pixel smartphones.
According to the department, Samane Gandari transferred hundreds of files containing Google trade secrets to third-party communications platforms, specifically channels that included each defendant’s first name. Soroa Gandhari is also alleged to have leaked numerous Google-related files containing trade secrets through the same channel while working for the company.
The trade secret files were then copied to various personal devices, a work device belonging to Khosravi, and a work device issued to Sorol Gandhari by Company 3. Defendants then concealed their conduct by filing false signed affidavits. Files leaked from electronic devices were destroyed. Additionally, instead of using a messaging app to transfer documents, they manually took a photo of the screen containing the document’s contents.
“After Google’s internal security systems detected Ms. Samaneh Gandhari’s activity and Google revoked her access to internal resources in August 2023, Ms. Samaneh Gandhari allegedly executed a signed affidavit asserting that she did not share confidential Google information with anyone outside the company,” the Justice Department added.
In addition, Samaneh Gandhari and Khosravi conducted searches online and visited websites regarding deletion of communications and other data. This included questions about how long mobile phone service providers kept “messages to print in court.”
During that time, the couple allegedly continued to access Google trade secrets stored on their personal devices for the purpose of manually capturing hundreds of computer screens with confidential Google and company information for an unspecified period of several months.
Samaneh Gandhari also allegedly manually took approximately 24 photos of Khosravi’s workplace computer screen containing Company 2’s confidential trade information with his cell phone the night before the pair traveled to Iran in December 2023. These photos were then accessed from a personal device associated with Samaneh Gandhari in Iran.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the trade secret theft charge, and up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the obstruction of justice charge.
The development comes less than a month after another former Google engineer, Linwei Ding, was convicted in the United States of stealing thousands of confidential company documents to help found a startup in China.
Source link
