Three individuals, including two former employees of Google, have been indicted in a US court for 14 felony counts involving conspiracy, theft of trade secrets, and evidence destruction. The indictment, unsealed on Thursday, involves allegations related to the theft of proprietary information about Google's Tensor chips used in Pixel phones.
Samaneh Ghandali, a former hardware engineer, and her sister Soroor Ghandali, who interned at Google, are among the accused. They later joined another tech firm. Their co-defendant, Mohammadjavad Khosravi, who has previously sought employment at Google, is also facing charges. If convicted of the most serious crimes, all three could face a prison sentence of at least 20 years.
A Google spokesperson stated that the company has implemented stronger safeguards to protect its confidential information and promptly notified law enforcement upon discovering the incident. This case follows previous concerns over leaks related to the Tensor technology, highlighting ongoing challenges in safeguarding trade secrets.