Ex-Google Engineer Linwei Ding Sentenced to Nearly 12 Months for AI Trade Secret Theft

A San Francisco federal judge sentenced former Google software engineer Linwei Ding to nearly one year in prison for stealing over 1,200 proprietary AI documents. The judge rejected the probation office's recommendation of six months as insufficient.

Former Google Engineer Gets 12-Month Prison Term for Stealing AI Secrets

A former Google software engineer was sentenced Tuesday to nearly one year in prison for stealing hundreds of proprietary documents related to the company's artificial intelligence technology, Courthouse News Service reports.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria handed down a sentence of 12 months minus one day to Linwei Ding, accompanied by two years of supervised release. Chhabria also ordered Ding to pay more than $198,000 in restitution to Google and a $2,500 fine. Ding's request to stay the sentencing pending appeal was denied; he must surrender within 90 days.

The probation office had recommended a sentence of up to six months, but Chhabria rejected that figure. "This was a systematic, brazen effort to steal Google's property and to benefit himself with it," the judge said. "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."

Chhabria added that a non-custodial sentence was "very hard to swallow" given the nature of the crimes.

Defense and prosecution far apart on recommended punishment

Ding's attorney, Grant Fondo of Goodwin Procter, had asked for three months of home confinement, citing his client's clean criminal record and low risk of reoffending. "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," Fondo told the court.

The government pushed for a far stiffer sentence of 70 months, urging the judge to weigh the complexity of the scheme, Ding's repeated attempts to conceal his actions, and the broader deterrent effect. "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," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Boom.

Before sentencing, Ding addressed the court directly. "I am sorry to everyone around me for everyone involved in the case, for the pain and sadness all these years," he said, adding that he was "scared and sad to be separated from my son."

More than 14,000 pages of internal documents taken

Google hired Ding in 2019 as a software engineer working on its supercomputing data centers. Between the spring of 2022 and 2023, he transferred and downloaded 1,255 internal Google documents — comprising an estimated 14,000 pages — according to prosecutors.

A San Francisco jury convicted Ding on all 14 counts of theft of trade secrets and economic espionage following a two-week trial in January. Ding had contested the charges, filing motions for a new trial, mistrial, and acquittal.

In June, Chhabria concluded that a rational juror could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Ding intended to use the stolen information for his own benefit and for a company he was forming in China.

However, in a separate ruling last month, the judge vacated Ding's economic espionage conviction, finding insufficient evidence that he intended to benefit the Chinese government when he uploaded the documents.

Appeal could revive espionage charge

Fondo signaled that Ding would appeal the sentence. Chhabria noted that an appeal could open the door for the appellate court to reverse the acquittal on the economic espionage counts — which would then require a resentencing.

Source: Courthouse News Service