US grand jury indicts ex-Google engineers for stealing data, passing it on ‘to Iran’

A grand jury indicts three Silicon Valley engineers accused of stealing trade secrets from Google and passing information on to other companies and “to Iran.”

Soroor Ghandali, 32, her sister Samaneh Ghandali, 41, and the latter’s husband Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, are identified in the indictment as Iranian nationals.

The sisters, who worked at Google before moving to another company, as well as Khosravi are accused of stealing information from Google and other companies and passing them on “to work devices associated with each other’s employers, and to Iran,” according to a US Attorney’s Office statement.

The case also involves a trip to the Islamic Republic, but the statement does not explicitly accuse the defendants of spying for the Iranian regime.

The three are also accused of obstructing the investigation into their actions.

If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, as well as a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the obstruction charge.