People walk near a sign outside of Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
A federal grand jury indicted three Silicon Valley engineers on charges of stealing trade secrets from Google and other technology companies and transferring sensitive data to Iran, prosecutors said Thursday.
Samaneh Ghandali, 41, her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, and Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40 — all residents of San Jose — were arrested Thursday and appeared in a federal district court the same day.
The indictment identified the defendants as Iranian nationals. Soroor was in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant student visa. Samaneh later became a U.S. citizen, and Khosravi, her husband, became a U.S. legal permanent resident. Prosecutors said that Khosravi previously served in the Iranian army.
The trio faces charges of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of California.
Prosecutors alleged the three defendants exploited their positions at leading technology firms that develop mobile computer processors to obtain hundreds of confidential files, including materials related to processor security and cryptography.
Samaneh and Soroor worked at Google before joining a third company identified only as Company 3. Khosravi worked at a separate firm referred to as Company 2, which develops system-on-chip (SoC) platforms such as the Snapdragon series for smartphones and other mobile devices.
SoC is a semiconductor that integrates numerous components, such as graphics processing units and memory, into a power-efficient package. Common SoCs include Qualcomm's Snapdragon, found in most high-end Android phones, and Apple's A-series for iPhones.
In a statement to CNBC, Google said it had detected the alleged theft through routine security monitoring before referring the case to law enforcement.
"We have enhanced safeguards to protect our confidential information and immediately alerted law enforcement after discovering this incident," spokesman José Castañeda said.
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