Silicon Valley Prosecutor Cracks Down on Foreign Corporate Espionage Activities

National Security Concerns Rise in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley's top federal prosecutor, Craig Missakian, has identified trade-secret theft and economic espionage involving foreign adversaries as top priorities for his office. The US Attorney for the Northern District of California stated that these cases pose a significant national security threat, particularly with countries such as China and Iran attempting to steal US technology.

Missakian's office oversees criminal prosecutions in the Bay Area, home to some of the biggest US technology companies. The region has long enjoyed global superiority in technology used by the defense industry, but countries around the world are working to close this gap. According to Missakian, one way they are doing this is by trying to steal US technology.

When investigating trade-secret theft, Missakian prioritizes conduct involving US adversaries, including China and Iran, citing it as a "plus factor" in deciding whether to file charges. He emphasized that the strength of US technology will determine the outcome of future wars.

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Recent cases have highlighted the severity of the issue. In January, a federal jury in San Francisco convicted a former engineer at Alphabet Inc.'s Google of economic espionage and trade-secrets theft for taking hundreds of confidential documents on AI chip technology to build a startup in China. In February, two former Google engineers and one of their husbands, all Iranian nationals, were indicted for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the company's Tensor processor for Pixel phones. They have pleaded not guilty.

Google has cooperated with law enforcement in the investigations and has strengthened its trade-secret protections. The US Justice Department launched a China Initiative during the first Trump administration to combat Chinese government-directed intellectual-property theft. However, the Biden administration shut down the initiative amid concerns about ethnic profiling and the criminalization of scientific collaboration.

During a recent event in San Francisco, Missakian was asked about the risk of discrimination in pursuing cases against foreign nationals. He assured that his office will never target anyone based on their nationality or ethnicity, but will instead be "clear eyed about the world we live in."

Recent Trade-Secret Theft Cases

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