Former Google Engineer Accused of Stealing Trade Secrets for Chinese Tech Companies

A former Google software engineer, Linwei Ding, has been accused of stealing more than 500 files containing proprietary information about the tech giant's supercomputing infrastructure, according to a federal indictment unsealed in San Francisco on Wednesday. Ding, who is a Chinese national living in Newark, California, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with four counts of stealing trade secrets.

Lengthy Period of Data Theft

The court filings revealed that Ding started working for Google in 2019, focusing on software development for machine learning and AI programs. Prosecutors alleged that starting in May 2022, over the course of a year, he gradually siphoned off the tech giant's proprietary data. In June 2022, Ding received emails from the CEO of a tech company based in Beijing offering him over $14,000 per month to serve as an executive focused on machine learning and AI training models. The following year, he started his own company and pitched his tech business to investors at a Beijing venture capital conference.

Accusations and Investigations

An investigation revealed that Ding continued to take information from Google until December 2023 when company officials first became aware of his activity. Weeks later, he resigned and booked a flight to Beijing. After a months-long FBI investigation, he was eventually arrested in Newark, California.

Statements from Google and the Justice Department

According to José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, "We have strict safeguards to prevent the theft of our confidential commercial information and trade secrets. After an investigation, we found that this employee stole numerous documents, and we quickly referred the case to law enforcement."

Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized that "The Justice Department just will not tolerate the theft of trade secrets," at an event in San Francisco, echoing sentiments of national security officials who have been sounding the alarm about the theft of American technology by foreign adversaries. The charges against Ding are the first since the Justice Department said it was prioritizing artificial intelligence technology in its efforts to counter those threats.