Silicon Valley family indicted for stealing Google trade secrets for Iran
- Marijan Hassan - Tech Journalist
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
Sec-3
Silicon Valley family indicted for stealing Google trade secrets for Iran
Federal prosecutors unsealed a grand jury indictment on February 19, 2026, charging three San Jose engineers with a coordinated scheme to exfiltrate proprietary hardware secrets to Iran. The trio - a husband, wife, and sister - is accused of stealing hundreds of confidential files related to Google’s Tensor processors and advanced cryptography, even resorting to manually photographing computer screens to bypass modern digital tripwires.
The case is being described by the Department of Justice as a "calculated betrayal of trust" that targets the very heart of American mobile computing and encryption technology.
The "family business" of espionage
The indictment names three Iranian nationals, two of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens or permanent residents:
Samaneh Ghandali (41): A former Google hardware engineer.
Mohammadjavad Khosravi (40): Samaneh’s husband, who worked for a separate major processor firm (identified only as "Company 2").
Soroor Ghandali (32): Samaneh’s sister and a former Google intern who later moved to a third tech firm ("Company 3").
Prosecutors allege the trio used their overlapping access at Google and other firms to build a "shadow library" of trade secrets, which they shared via private channels on a third-party messaging platform named after their own first names.
Cracking the Tensor vault
The primary target of the theft was Google’s Tensor processor, the custom silicon that powers AI and security features in Pixel smartphones.
The stolen files included blueprints for processor security, advanced encryption methods, and the underlying cryptography that protects user data.
Google’s internal security flagged Samaneh Ghandali’s activity in August 2023, leading to her immediate termination. However, she allegedly signed a false affidavit claiming she had not shared any data.
To avoid further digital detection after Samaneh was caught, the husband-wife duo allegedly began manually photographing computer screens with their mobile phones. On the night before a December 2023 trip to Iran, Samaneh reportedly took 24 photos of secret hardware designs from her husband’s work laptop.
The Iran connection
The most damning evidence involves a trip the couple took to Tehran in late 2023. Federal investigators tracking the couple's digital footprints discovered that Samaneh's personal device was used to access the stolen photographs and Google files while physically located within Iran.
While the indictment does not explicitly name the Iranian government as the end-recipient, the sensitivity of the cryptographic data has led national security experts to conclude the material was destined for state-sponsored reverse-engineering.
Maximum sentences and legal fallout
The three engineers were arrested on February 19 and have pleaded not guilty to 14 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit trade secret theft and obstruction of justice. If convicted, each defendant faces up to 10 years for each count of trade secret theft and up to 20 years for obstruction of justice.
A Google spokesperson confirmed the company is "enhancing safeguards" and noted that their internal monitoring was what originally triggered the FBI investigation.
