A federal grand jury has indicted three engineers from Silicon Valley on allegations of stealing trade secrets from Google and other tech firms, as well as transferring sensitive information to Iran, according to prosecutors on Thursday. On Thursday, Samaneh Ghandali and Mohammadjavad Khosravi were apprehended and subsequently made an appearance in a federal district court on the same day. The indictment specified that the defendants are Iranian nationals. Soroor held a nonimmigrant student visa while in the U.S. Samaneh subsequently attained U.S. citizenship, while her husband, Khosravi, secured the status of U.S. legal permanent resident. Prosecutors indicated that Khosravi had prior service in the Iranian military. The three individuals are confronted with allegations of conspiracy to engage in the theft of trade secrets, as well as theft and attempted theft of such secrets, alongside charges of obstruction of justice, as stated by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California. Prosecutors contended that the three defendants leveraged their roles at prominent technology companies specializing in mobile computer processors to acquire hundreds of confidential documents, encompassing materials pertinent to processor security and cryptography.

Samaneh and Soroor were previously employed at Google prior to their transition to a third entity referred to as Company 3. Khosravi was employed at a distinct firm known as Company 2, which specializes in the development of system-on-chip platforms, including the Snapdragon series, for smartphones and various mobile devices. SoC represents a semiconductor that consolidates various components, including graphics processing units and memory, into a power-efficient configuration. Prominent system-on-chips encompass Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, prevalent in the majority of high-end Android smartphones, alongside Apple’s A-series utilized in iPhones. In a statement, Google indicated that it had identified the purported theft via standard security monitoring prior to escalating the matter to law enforcement authorities. “We have enhanced safeguards to protect our confidential information and immediately alerted law enforcement after discovering this incident,” stated spokesman José Castañeda. The technology behemoth highlighted initiatives aimed at safeguarding its proprietary information. These measures encompass limiting employee access to confidential data, implementing two-factor authentication for professional Google accounts, and monitoring file transfers to external platforms like Telegram. Authorities have alleged that the defendants transmitted stolen files via a third-party communications platform to channels identified by their first names, subsequently copying the material onto personal devices, each other’s work devices, and transferring it to Iran.

“The approach employed by the defendants for the transfer of confidential data included intentional measures to avoid detection and obscure their identities,” stated Sanjay Virmani. The defendants attempted to obscure their actions following the alert triggered by Google’s internal security systems regarding Samaneh’s activities, which resulted in the revocation of her access to company resources in August 2023. The indictment states that she signed an affidavit in which she falsely asserted that she had not disclosed Google’s confidential information beyond the company. During that period, a personal laptop associated with Samaneh and Khosravi was utilized to explore techniques for erasing communications and to investigate the duration for which mobile carriers maintain message records, prosecutors stated. The couple reportedly captured images of numerous computer screens displaying sensitive information from Google and Company 2, seemingly in an effort to evade digital surveillance mechanisms.

On the eve of their journey to Iran in December 2023, Samaneh reportedly captured approximately 24 images of Khosravi’s work computer display, which included the trade secrets of Company 2, notably its Snapdragon SoCs. Prosecutors contend that during their time in Iran, a device associated with Samaneh accessed those photographs, while Khosravi obtained further proprietary information from Company 2, including the hardware architecture of the Snapdragon SoC. Prosecutors indicated in the indictment that the trade secrets of Snapdragon SoC possessed independent economic value due to their lack of general knowledge and the difficulty competitors of Company 2 would face in acquiring them, which could provide a competitive advantage if disclosed or utilized. If found guilty, each defendant could receive a sentence of up to 10 years for each charge related to trade secrets and up to 20 years for obstruction of justice, in addition to potential fines reaching $250,000 for each count.