Ex-Google engineer’s espionage convictions overturned, theft convictions stand

A federal judge vacated seven economic-espionage convictions against former Google engineer Linwei Ding, ruling prosecutors failed to prove he acted for China, while upholding seven trade-secret theft convictions for taking thousands of pages of Google’s AI hardware and software designs. Ding now faces up to ten years per theft count, with sentencing set for 1 September, and the decision highlights the difficulty of proving foreign-state intent in such cases.