Ex-Google engineers charged with stealing phone processor tech

Two former Google engineers and one of their husbands were indicted for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the company’s Tensor processor for Pixel phones.The three — all Iranian nationals — were charged in a US indictment unsealed Thursday, February 19, on 14 felony counts of conspiracy and theft of trade secrets and destroying evidence.

Samaneh Ghandali, 41, was a hardware engineer at Google in Silicon Valley and her sister, Soroor Ghandali, 32, was an intern before they both joined another tech firm. Samaneh’s husband, Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, applied multiple times at Google but was not hired, and worked for a third tech company.
Also read: Accenture US makes AI tool adoption key to leadership promotionsThe three were arrested Thursday and made initial appearances in federal court in San Jose, California, the Justice Department said in a statement. If convicted on the most serious charges, they could be sentenced to at least 20 years in prison, according to the statement.

“We have enhanced safeguards to protect our confidential information and immediately alerted law enforcement after discovering this incident,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement. “Today’s indictments are an important step towards accountability and we’ll continue working to ensure our trade secrets remain secure.”

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The case is USA v. Ghandali, 26-cr-00071, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).