A former Google engineer, along with her husband and sister, has been charged in the United States for allegedly stealing trade secrets linked to Google’s Tensor processor, which powers Pixel smartphones. According to a Bloomberg report, Samaneh Ghandali, 41 is an Iranian national and previously worked as a hardware engineer at Google in Silicon Valley. Her sister, Soroor Ghandali, 32, was once an intern at the company. Both later joined another technology firm. Samaneh’s husband, Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, applied several times for jobs at Google but was not hired and instead worked for a separate tech company.

Trade secrets stolen for former Google engineer

The case was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. US authorities said the case involves confidential hardware information taken from Google while the accused were working or seeking work in the tech industry. The Justice Department said the trade secrets were related to Google’s in-house Tensor processor used in Pixel phones.All three accused were charged with 14 felony counts, including conspiracy, theft of trade secrets, and destruction of evidence. The three were arrested on Thursday, February 19 and appeared in federal court in San Jose, California. If found guilty, they could face up to 20 years in prison.

What Google said

As per the Bloomberg report, Google said it took quick action after discovering the incident. “We have enhanced safeguards to protect our confidential information and immediately alerted law enforcement after discovering this incident,” a Google spokesperson said.Last month, another former Google software engineer Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, 38 was convicted on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information containing Google’s trade secrets related to artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The jury’s verdict follows an 11-day trial before US District Judge Vince Chhabria for the Northern District of California.“This conviction exposes a calculated breach of trust involving some of the most advanced AI technology in the world at a critical moment in AI development,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Ding abused his privileged access to steal AI trade secrets while pursuing PRC government-aligned ventures. His duplicity put U.S. technological leadership and competitiveness at risk. I commend the trial team and investigators whose exceptional work resulted in this conviction.”