The suspect, identified as Linwei Ding, 38, also known as Leon Ding, faces four charges of trade secret theft, Garland stated in a press release.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could jeopardize national security,” the Attorney General said in the statement.
“The defendant stole trade secrets related to artificial intelligence from Google while covertly working for two Chinese companies. We will resolutely defend sensitive technologies developed in the United States to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands,” he added.
According to the indictment, issued on Tuesday, March 5, and made public this Wednesday, Ding was hired by Google in 2019 as a software engineer and, starting in May 2022, began clandestinely transferring trade secrets from the network to copy them to his personal Google Cloud account.
“We have strict rules to prevent the theft of our confidential business information and trade secrets. Following an investigation, we discovered that this employee had stolen numerous documents and promptly notified legal authorities of this matter,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, told AFP. In total, approximately 500 unique files containing confidential information were reportedly uploaded.
“These allegations are the latest example of how far affiliates of companies based in the People’s Republic of China will go to steal American innovation,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray, quoted in the statement.
The engineer faces four counts of trade secret theft, each punishable by a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the Department of Justice.
