Ex-Google engineer faces new US charges over theft of AI secrets for Chinese firms
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Chinese national Ding Linwei was charged with seven counts each of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SAN FRANCISCO - US prosecutors on Feb 4 unveiled an expanded 14-count indictment accusing former Google software engineer Ding Linwei of stealing artificial intelligence (AI) trade secrets to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for.
Ding, 38, a Chinese national, was charged by a federal grand jury in San Francisco with seven counts each of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.
Each economic espionage charge carries a maximum 15-year prison term and US$5 million (S$6.8 million) fine, while each trade secrets charge carries a maximum 10-year term and US$250,000 fine.
The defendant, also known as Leon Ding, was indicted in March 2024
Ding’s case was coordinated through an inter-agency Disruptive Technology Strike Force created in 2023 by the Biden administration.
The initiative was designed to help stop advanced technology from being acquired by countries such as China and Russia, or potentially threatening national security.
Prosecutors said Ding stole information about the hardware infrastructure and software platform
Some of the allegedly stolen chip blueprints were meant to give Google an edge over cloud computing rivals Amazon.com and Microsoft, which design their own, and reduce Google’s reliance on chips from Nvidia.
Prosecutors said Ding joined Google in May 2019 and began his thefts three years later, when he was being courted to join an early-stage Chinese technology company.
Ding allegedly uploaded more than 1,000 confidential files by May 2023 and later circulated a PowerPoint presentation to employees of a China start-up he had founded, saying the country’s policies encouraged development of a domestic AI industry.
Google was not charged and has said it cooperated with law enforcement.
According to court records describing a Dec 18 hearing, prosecutors and defense lawyers discussed a “potential resolution” to Ding’s case, “but anticipate the matter proceeding to trial”. REUTERS
