Google can't do that. It's a decision made by a federal prosecutor.

P.S. IANAL.

Interesting. How would the federal prosecutor have found out about these people? Jawbone must have initiated in some way.

looks to be very similar story to Google/Lewandowski:

http://fortune.com/2017/02/07/jawbone-says-criminal-grand-ju...

"In the California lawsuit, Jawbone has accused Fitbit of hiring away at least five of its former employees, who it says brought with them hundreds of thousands of confidential files when they joined in 2015."

Looks like it was a smart move for Lewandowski when he took the 5th. These Jawbone/Fitbit employees seem to have chosen the other way:

https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/15/jawbone-and-fitbit...

"Fitbit says it never accessed any of the files in dispute, or used them for any of its products. The Fitbit employees in question did turn over 18,000 files to the California Superior Court that belonged to Jawbone."

Where have you been because this has been ongoing for like a year now?

Waymo did sue Uber and there was a settlement: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2018/02/13/everyone-w...

Sure, but that was civil not criminal.

Google can't file criminal charges, only federal prosecutors can.

What would cause them to initiate it? What initiated it in the Jawbone case?

Generally the entity that believes their stuff has been stolen goes to the authorities to complain. Then someone there makes a determination whether or not to take up the case and ultimately prosecute.

Not sure if this is the same case, but Fitbit’s 10-K from a couple years back mentions an ongoing suit against them and some employees for the same thing.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1447599/000144759916...

CTRL+F on that page for “On May 27, 2015, Jawbone filed a lawsuit”

In the Waymo v Uber case, the judge referred the case to the Dept of Justice. The DOJ then decides if they're interested in investigating. They still might.