Ex-Google engineer who stole trade secrets sentenced to nearly 12 months

The judge said the guideline sentencing range of up to six months did not properly capture the severity of the crime.SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A former Google software engineer who stole proprietary information on Google’s artificial intelligence technology was sentenced to nearly one year in prison Tuesday.U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria sentenced Linwei Ding to 12 months, minus one day, with two years of supervised release. The judge also ordered Ding to pay more than $198,000 in restitution to Google and a $2,500 fine.The Barack Obama appointee further denied Ding’s request to stay sentencing pending appeal. He will have to surrender within 90 days.Grant Fondo of Goodwin Procter, an attorney for Ding, requested a sentence of three months’ home confinement. Fondo told the judge Ding had no criminal record and was not at risk of committing the same crime again.“To think he would do that again to put his family at further risk, the torment his family has gone through, the further risk of separation from his son. I understand your concern, but I think the record shows differently,” Fondo said.In contrast, the government sought a sentence of 70 months in prison, asking the judge to consider the complexity of Ding’s crimes, his attempts to conceal his actions and the need to deter others from similar crimes.“Consider the message it would send to would-be Mr. Dings in Silicon Valley and the companies in Silicon Valley. Insider trade secret theft is a calculated crime not done in the heat of passion,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Boom said.The probation office recommended a sentence up to six months, which Chhabria said he didn’t believe “adequately captures the severity of the crimes Mr. Ding committed.”“This was a systematic, brazen effort to steal Google’s property and to benefit himself with it. He knew very well what he was doing and he hurt people along the way. He hurt Google along the way; he hurt his intern, his family and numerous times he tried to avoid detection,” the judge said. “I have a very hard time imagining him not going to jail for this crime he committed. The idea of a non-custodial sentence is very hard to swallow for me.”Ding addressed the court before his sentence was handed down, thanking the court for respect and decency and apologizing to his family.“I am sorry to everyone around me for everyone involved in the case, for the pain and sadness all these years,” he said. “I am thankful for forgiveness and understanding, particularly from my family. I am scared and sad to be separated from my son.”Ding was accused of stealing trade secrets from Google, which hired him in 2019 as a software engineer to help develop its supercomputing data centers. The government said Ding transferred and downloaded 1,255 internal Google documents, comprising an estimated 14,000 pages, between the spring of 2022 and 2023.A San Francisco jury found Ding guilty of all 14 counts of theft of trade secrets and economic espionage following a two-week trial in January. Ding contested the charges against him, filing motions for a new trial, mistrial and acquittal.In June, Chhabria concluded a rational juror could have found beyond a reasonable doubt Ding intended to take the trade secret information for the benefit of himself and the company he was forming in China.However, in a separate order released last month, the judge tossed Ding’s economic espionage conviction, concluding there was insufficient evidence Ding intended to benefit the Chinese government when he uploaded the trade secret documents.Fondo indicated Ding would be appealing the sentence; Chhabria noted that could open the door for the appeals court to reverse the acquittal of the economic espionage charges, which would require him to resentence Ding.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads