Two former Google engineers and the husband of one of them have been charged in the United States with allegedly stealing trade secrets from the company and other technology companies. The data is said to have been transferred to unauthorized locations, including Iran .
Samaneh Ghandali, 41, and her husband Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, along with her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, are charged with conspiracy to steal trade secrets from Google and other leading technology companies, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice.
The three defendants, all Iranian citizens residing in San Jose, were arrested on Thursday and made their first appearance in California federal court.
See also: Former Google engineer convicted of stealing trade secrets
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the Ghandali sisters worked at Google before joining another technology company referred to as Company 3. Khosravi allegedly worked at a different company (referred to as Company 2). All three worked in the mobile computer processor sector.
“ As part of the alleged scheme to steal trade secrets, the defendants used their employment to gain access to confidential and sensitive information ,” the DoJ said
“The defendants then extracted confidential and sensitive documents, including trade secrets related to processor security, cryptography and other technologies, from Google and other technology companies.“.
In a statement shared with Bloomberg, a Google spokesperson said the company has strengthened safeguards to protect its confidential information and immediately notified law enforcement after discovering the incident. The trade secrets involved the company's Tensor processor for Pixel phones .
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Samaneh Ghandali transferred hundreds of files, including Google trade secrets, to a communications platform, specifically to channels that bore the defendants' first names. Soroor Ghandali also allegedly exported numerous Google-related files, which contained trade secrets.
The trade secret files were then copied to various personal devices, as well as to a work device belonging to Khosravi and a work device issued to Soroor Ghandali by Company 3. The defendants then concealed their actions by submitting false, signed statements, destroying the extracted files from electronic devices, and manually photos of the screens containing the contents of the documents rather than transferring the documents using the messaging app.
“After Samaneh Ghandali’s activity was detected by Google’s internal security systems and her access to company resources was revoked in August 2023, Samaneh Ghandali allegedly signed an affidavit claiming that she had not shared confidential information with anyone outside the company,” the DoJ added.
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In addition, Samaneh Ghandali and Khosravi conducted online searches and visited websites regarding the deletion of communications and other data. This included questions about how long a mobile phone service provider retains “messages for printing for the court.”
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In the meantime, the couple allegedly continued to have access to Google trade secrets stored on their personal devices.
Samaneh Ghandali also allegedly manually captured approximately 24 photos of Khosravi’s work computer containing Company 2 trade secret information with her cell phone (the night before the couple traveled to Iran in December 2023). These photos were then obtained from a personal device associated with Samaneh Ghandali in Iran.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each theft count and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the obstruction of justice count.
