A former Google software engineer has been charged with four federal trade secret theft counts for allegedly planning to steal artificial intelligence technology from Google while secretly working for two Chinese companies. DOJ indictment Wednesday.

Chinese national Ding Linwei was arrested in Newark, California, on Wednesday. He was hired by Google in 2019 and was given access to confidential information about the company’s supercomputing data centers. He allegedly began uploading hundreds of files to a personal Google Cloud account between May 2022 and May 2023.

While at Google, he served as chief technology officer at an early-stage technology company in China that emphasized the use of artificial intelligence. The indictment alleges that Mr. Ding traveled to China to attend investor meetings aimed at raising capital for the company.

Ding also founded and served as CEO of a separate Chinese startup that trained artificial intelligence models, the indictment said. Before his resignation on December 26, Google did not disclose his affiliation. However, the information was soon revealed when officials learned that he was serving as CEO of one of the companies at an investor conference in Beijing.

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said, “We have strict safeguards in place to protect our confidential business information and trade secrets from theft. After an investigation, we discovered that this employee had stolen a large number of documents, We quickly referred the case to law enforcement.”

Tintin’s defense attorney did not immediately return a call Wednesday night seeking comment, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the case at an American Bar Association conference in San Francisco.

The FBI and Commerce Department are investigating the case.

Law enforcement authorities have been warning about the dangers of Chinese economic espionage and the national security implications of advances in artificial intelligence.

“Today’s charges are the latest example of the lengths to which corporate affiliates of the People’s Republic of China go to steal American innovation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “Theft of innovative technologies and trade secrets from U.S. companies has the potential to Leading to job losses and devastating economic and national security consequences.”

If convicted, Ding faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 per count. It was unclear whether Ding had an attorney speaking on his behalf.

Information for this report was provided in part by The Associated Press, Reuters and AFP.