A U.S. federal grand jury has indicted three engineers in Silicon Valley, accusing them of stealing sensitive technology from Google and other companies and funneling it to Iran, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

The defendants, Samaneh Ghandali, 41, her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, and her husband Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, were arrested in San Jose and appeared in federal court the same day. All three are Iranian nationals who had worked at major tech firms, including Google.

Prosecutors allege the trio exploited their positions at companies specializing in mobile processors to gain access to confidential files. Officials said they stole “hundreds of files,” including trade secrets related to Google’s Pixel smartphone processors, and copied them onto personal devices and third‑party platforms.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani condemned the alleged scheme, saying it “reflect[s] a calculated betrayal of trust by individuals accused of stealing trade secrets from the very tech companies that employed them.”

Court documents claim the engineers attempted to cover their tracks by deleting stolen files and wiping records from electronic devices. Google’s internal security flagged suspicious activity by Samaneh Ghandali in August 2023, leading the company to revoke her access. Later that year, she and Khosravi traveled to Iran, where one of her personal devices accessed the sensitive documents.

The Justice Department noted that while the stolen information was transferred to Iran, it remains unclear who received it. The three defendants are scheduled to appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge on Friday.