Iranian Spies Busted: Three Silicon Valley Engineers Charged with Stealing Google Trade Secrets and Funneling Data to Tehran

A federal grand jury has indicted three engineers for stealing hundreds of confidential files from Google and other tech giants, then smuggling the sensitive data to Iran.

The defendants, Samaneh Ghandali, 41, a U.S. citizen; her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, an Iranian national on a student visa; and Samaneh’s husband Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, an Iranian national and legal permanent resident, were all residents of San Jose at the time of the theft.

Samaneh and Soroor previously worked at Google before joining another unnamed tech firm, while Khosravi, a former member of the Iranian army, was employed at a developer of system-on-chip (SoC) platforms, such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series used in high-end Android phones and Apple’s iPhones.

Charged with conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, theft, and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice, the trio allegedly exploited their insider access to steal processor security, cryptography materials, and Snapdragon SoC hardware architecture secrets that serve as valuable intel not readily available to competitors.

The trio routed the files through third-party platforms like Telegram, copied them to personal devices, and even photographed computer screens to dodge digital monitoring.

In a particularly brazen move, just before Samaneh and Khosravi jetted off to Iran in December 2023, she snapped photos of his work screen displaying company secrets.

While in Iran, devices linked to them accessed this pilfered info.

Google caught wind of the scheme in August 2023 when internal security flagged Samaneh’s suspicious activity, leading to her access being revoked.

The company then tipped off law enforcement, who uncovered searches on the suspects’ devices for ways to delete communications and probe how long carriers keep message records. Samaneh even signed a false affidavit claiming she hadn’t shared Google’s secrets.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani said of the operation, “The method in which confidential data was transferred by the defendants involved deliberate steps to evade detection and conceal their identities,” according to a CNBC report.

Google spokesman José Castañeda added, “We have enhanced safeguards to protect our confidential information and immediately alerted law enforcement after discovering this incident.”

If convicted, each faces up to 10 years per trade secret count and up to 20 years for obstruction, plus fines of up to $250,000 per charge.

This indictment, unsealed on Thursday, comes amid heightened scrutiny of Iran’s cyber threats and espionage.

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