The Department of Justice announced the indictment of Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, on charges related to the theft of trade secrets from an American company involving proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The indictment alleges that Ding, a 38-year-old national of the People’s Republic of China residing in Newark, California, illicitly obtained sensitive Google trade secrets and confidential information while secretly collaborating with technology companies based in China.
Ding is a citizen of China who has been a resident of Newark, California, while working at Google since 2019. Federal investigators allege that he stole over 500 confidential files covering the company’s efforts to develop AI supercomputing data centers meant to train machine learning workloads, including possibly generative AI.
The announcement came during a “Fireside Chat” at the American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime in San Francisco, where Attorney General Merrick B. Garland addressed the case.
According to the indictment, Ding, while employed as a software engineer at Google since 2019, had access to confidential information regarding the tech company’s advanced supercomputing data centers, which support machine learning workloads for large AI models.
Allegedly, Ding began transferring trade secrets from Google’s network to his personal account in May 2022, continuing until May 2023, and uploaded over 500 unique files containing confidential information.
Furthermore, the indictment alleges that Ding clandestinely affiliated himself with two technology companies based in the People’s Republic of China, with whom he shared Google’s stolen trade secrets. Ding purportedly traveled to China, participated in investor meetings, and misrepresented his position and ownership stake in the companies to potential investors.
Ding’s actions, as outlined in the indictment, violated his employment agreement with Google and a separate code of conduct he signed upon joining the company. Moreover, he allegedly took deliberate steps to conceal his theft of trade secrets, including copying data to personal devices and fabricating his physical presence at a Google office while in China.
Ding faces four counts of theft of trade secrets, each carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The case is being investigated by the FBI and the Commerce Department, with prosecution led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
The indictment underscores the ongoing efforts of the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, an interagency law enforcement initiative co-led by the Departments of Justice and Commerce, aimed at combating illicit acquisition of critical technology by hostile nation-states and authoritarian regimes.
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