Former Google employees have been indicted for stealing technology trade secrets from Google and other companies and then sending that information to Iran. Three individuals, Samaneh Ghandali, Soroor Ghandali, and Mohammadjavad Khosravi, worked for companies in Silicon Valley as engineers and were caught stealing and transferring data from company computers before transferring the information.
According to a CNBC report, both Samaneh and Soroor worked for Google, while Mohammadjavad worked for an unnamed second company. At one point, Samaneh and Soroor left Google to work for an unnamed third company. It’s not made clear if information was stolen from the company that Samaneh and Soroor had moved to from Google, but it is implied that information was stolen from all three companies. The report states that Google found out about the stolen trade secrets in August of 2023, due to its internal security systems flagging Samaneh’s activity.
Her access was then denied, at which point Samaneh, Soroor, and Mohammadjavad reportedly tried to cover up what they were doing. The three of them reportedly searched for ways to delete communications, while also trying to get around security monitoring by taking pictures of computer screens instead of transferring data.
In addition to Google, it seems likely that trade secrets may have been stolen from Qualcomm
While the report only mentions Google by name, it seems likely that Qualcomm may have been one of the other two companies. It’s mentioned that the trio took photos of Mohammadjavad Khosravi’s computer screen, which contained trade secrets from the company he worked at. Some of those trade secrets are said to have been Snapdragon SoCs. It’s not mentioned which Snapdragon SoCs, and although Qualcomm isn’t named directly, it does develop and manufacture Snapdragon chips.
It’s also not mentioned what data was stolen from Google, nor the unnamed third company that both Samaneh and Soroor left Google for prior to being discovered. Neither Samaneh, Soroor, nor Mohammadjavad has been convicted as of yet. However, each one of them could face hefty fines in addition to many years of jail time. The report states that all three could each individually face up to years in prison for each trade secret charge. They also face another 20 years of obstruction of justice, while potentially having to pay fines of $250,000 for every count they’re found guilty of.
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