A US federal grand jury has charged three Silicon Valley engineers with allegedly stealing trade secrets from tech companies including Google and transferring the information to Iran, the Justice Department said Thursday.
The three engineers, identified in court documents as Iranian nationals, are facing charges of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets and obstruction of official proceedings.
Samaneh Ghandali, 41, her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, and husband Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, were arrested Thursday and appeared in a federal district court in San Jose, California, the Justice Department said.
Both Samaneh and Soroor Ghandali had worked at Google before moving on to another company while Khosravi worked at another unidentified company.
All three lived in San Jose.
Prosecutors accused the trio of exploiting their positions at companies dealing with mobile computer processors to get access to sensitive data, including information related to data security, before transferring it to Iran.
It was not clear to whom in Iran the information was sent.
Their alleged actions “reflect a calculated betrayal of trust by individuals accused of stealing trade secrets from the very tech companies that employed them,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani said in a statement.
Officials said the Ghandalis stole “hundreds of files” that included Google trade secrets related to processors for Pixel smartphones and copied them to personal devices and third-party communications platforms.
The former engineers had attempted to conceal their actions, including by destroying exfiltrated files and other records from electronic devices, prosecutors alleged.
Google’s internal security systems detected Samaneh Ghandali’s activity, and Google revoked her access to company resources in August 2023, according to the Justice Department.
The agency said Ghandali and Khosravi traveled to Iran in December 2023, and a personal device associated with her accessed the sensitive documents during that time.
The trio was due to appear before a US Magistrate Judge on Friday.
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