Google engineer arrested. He fell due to his own stupidity
One of Google’s engineers has been arrested. The man faces serious charges, which could result in several years in prison and a high penalty. He fell due to his own stupidity.
Linwei ‘Leon’ Ding is a 38-year-old Chinese national who has worked at Google in Newark, California since 2109. Unfortunately, he did not take advantage of the opportunity that appeared in his life. The man was arrested and accused of stealing his employer’s trade secrets.
Google engineer detained
A federal grand jury indicted the 38-year-old on four counts of trade secret theft, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. In total, the man allegedly stole over 500 confidential files relating to Google’s work to develop efficient data centers for training artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Ding, as a software engineer, had access to data regarding both software and systems created for data centers. In May 2022, as evidence shows, he began to transfer some files to his private Google Drive account, which begged to be detected.
In addition, the man was in contact with two Chinese companies related to Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology Co. In June 2022, he even received a job offer as CTO (director of technology) with a monthly salary of PLN 14,800. dollars and a bonus in the form of company shares.
Moreover, in several months between 2022 and 2023, he traveled to China multiple times, where he participated in company meetings with shareholders, without informing Google. At one point, during such a trip, he even asked another employee to scan his pass so that the system would include information that he was working normally
Additionally, in May 2023, Ding founded his own company called Shanghai Zhisuan Technology Co, which also focuses on artificial intelligence and machine learning. At the same time, he informed his superior that he had no intention of resigning from his job at Google, and on December 14, 2023, he bought a one-way ticket to China, and on December 26, he submitted his notice. His last day of work was to be January 5, 2024.
His mistake was that at some point he returned to the United States. He was immediately arrested. He faces up to 10 years in prison and PLN 250,000. USD fine for each case of theft, i.e. a total of USD 1 million.
