A federal grand jury charged three engineers from Silicon Valley with accusations of stealing trade secrets from Google and other tech firms and transferring sensitive information to Iran, according to prosecutors on Thursday.
Samaneh Ghandali, 41, her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, and Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40 — all San Jose residents — were apprehended on Thursday and appeared in federal district court the same day.
The accusation recognized the defendants as Iranian nationals. Soroor was in the U.S. under a nonimmigrant student visa. Samaneh later obtained U.S. citizenship, and Khosravi, her spouse, achieved legal permanent residency in the U.S. Prosecutors noted that Khosravi had previously been part of the Iranian military.
The group is facing charges of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice, as stated by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California.
Prosecutors claimed that the three defendants took advantage of their positions at prominent tech companies developing mobile computer processors to acquire hundreds of confidential documents, including those concerning processor security and cryptography.
Samaneh and Soroor were employed at Google before moving to a third company, referred to only as Company 3. Khosravi worked at another firm known as Company 2, responsible for developing system-on-chip (SoC) platforms like the Snapdragon series for smartphones and other portable devices.
SoC is a semiconductor that combines many components, such as graphics processing units and memory, into an energy-efficient unit. Popular SoCs include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, featured in most high-end Android smartphones, and Apple’s A-series used in iPhones.
In a statement to CNBC, Google confirmed it had uncovered the alleged theft through normal security checks before notifying law enforcement.
“We have strengthened protections to safeguard our confidential data and promptly informed law enforcement upon discovering this situation,” said spokesperson José Castañeda.
The tech behemoth also highlighted steps taken to safeguard its trade secrets, including limiting employees’ access to sensitive data, implementing two-factor authentication for work-related Google accounts and monitoring file transfers to third-party services such as Telegram.
Alleged concealment attempts
Law enforcement claimed that the defendants channeled stolen files through a third-party messaging platform to channels named after each of their first names, subsequently uploading the data to personal devices, each other’s work devices, and to Iran.
“The tactics used to transfer confidential information by the defendants involved intentional actions to avoid detection and obscure their identities,” stated FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani.
The defendants attempted to erase their footprint after Google’s internal security systems flagged Samaneh’s behavior and revoked her access to corporate resources in August 2023.
The indictment revealed that she signed an affidavit falsely asserting she had not disclosed Google’s confidential information outside the organization. During that time, a personal laptop linked to Samaneh and Khosravi was used to investigate ways to eliminate communications and to explore how long mobile service providers retain message records, according to prosecutors.
The pair reportedly took photos of numerous computer screens holding confidential data from Google and Company 2, in what seemed to be an effort to bypass digital surveillance mechanisms.
On the eve of their trip to Iran in December 2023, Samaneh purportedly captured around 24 images of Khosravi’s work computer screen that displayed Company 2’s trade secrets, including its Snapdragon SoCs.
Prosecutors claim that while in Iran, a device associated with Samaneh accessed those images, and Khosravi retrieved other proprietary information from Company 2, including the Snapdragon SoC hardware architecture.
Prosecutors remarked in the indictment that Snapdragon SoC trade secrets possess intrinsic economic value because they are not widely known and cannot be easily acquired from Company 2’s competitors, who could derive benefits from their disclosure or utilization.
If found guilty, each defendant could face up to 10 years in prison for each trade secret charge and a maximum of 20 years for obstruction of justice, along with potential fines of up to $250,000 per count.
