March 7, 2024 at 10:00AM
Former Google software engineer Linwei (Leon) Ding, 38, was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly stealing proprietary information on Google’s AI technologies and transferring it to Chinese companies. Ding covertly uploaded over 500 files to his personal Google Cloud account and concealed his actions by lying and falsifying documents. He now faces serious legal consequences.
Based on the meeting notes, it is clear that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has unsealed an indictment against Linwei (Leon) Ding, a former software engineer at Google. Ding is suspected of stealing Google’s AI trade secrets for Chinese companies. The charges allege that Ding stole proprietary information about Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and transferred it to two companies based in China, where he secretly worked.
The stolen trade secrets involve crucial technology underpinning Google’s advanced supercomputing data centers, which are essential for training and hosting large AI models capable of processing nuanced language and generating intelligent responses.
Ding allegedly engaged in covert data theft by uploading proprietary data to a personal Google Cloud account, copying Google source files into Apple Notes on his Google-issued laptop to conceal his actions, and transferring the files containing confidential information to China without informing Google about his affiliations with these companies and his travels to participate in investor meetings in China.
Even after Google detected unauthorized data transfer activity, Ding responded by lying to a firm’s investigator, alleging that he uploaded files to his personal account to use as evidence of the work he conducted at the firm, and signing a Self-Deletion Affidavit stating he had permanently deleted all non-public information from Google outside the scope of his employment, which was untrue.
Ding has been arrested and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison plus a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of trade secret theft ($1 million in total).