Source: Office of United States Attorneys
SAN JOSE – A federal jury convicted Naheed Mangi, 66, a former employee of Stanford University, of accessing a clinical research database for a multisite breast cancer study after her authorization was revoked and altering patient records in the database. The jury reached its verdict late afternoon on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, following a two-week trial before Senior U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Mangi was employed as a clinical research coordinator in the Cancer Clinical Trials Office at Stanford’s National Cancer Institute from September 2012 until August 2013. Mangi worked with doctors and patients in the clinical research program, reporting significant patient events, monitoring research, assisting with scheduling patient appointments, and entering data into clinical dataset.
Mangi was assigned to a Genentech-sponsored study being conducted at Stanford for breast cancer patients that was referred to as the “Velvet Breast Cancer MO27782 Study.” The study sought to determine the safety and efficacy of a new, experimental pharmaceutical treatment for patients with metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer. Among other duties, Mangi was responsible for reporting any serious adverse events that a patient may experience during the course of the study and accurately entering patient medical data into the study database.
On Aug. 19, 2013, Mangi was terminated from her employment with Stanford and Mangi’s supervisor attempted to revoke her Stanford-related computer access and privileges. The supervisor emailed Genentech to terminate Mangi’s access to the clinical database, but Mangi’s credentials were not disabled until the following day.
The jury found that later in the evening on Aug. 19, after Stanford had revoked her access, Mangi logged into the clinical database and altered data in the Velvet Breast Cancer MO27782 Study, replacing patient medical data with erroneous information and insults about her former supervisor. As a result of Mangi’s unauthorized actions, Stanford undertook an internal investigation, reentered all of the data about its participants in the study from source documents into the study database, and reported the incident to local and federal regulatory authorities, including the FDA. In addition, Mangi’s criminal conduct caused thousands of dollars in financial loss to Stanford University and the Stanford School of Medicine.
“Naheed Mangi intentionally tampered with a breast cancer research database by entering false information and personal insults. Her senseless actions undermined a study into the safety and efficacy of a new treatment for breast cancer patients,” said Acting United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins. “The jury’s verdict holds the defendant accountable for her crimes.”
“Naheed Mangi’s actions jeopardized important cancer research and caused thousands in financial loss to Stanford University. The U.S. Secret Service continues to work diligently to investigate these types of crimes to ensure those responsible are held accountable,” said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Shawn Bradstreet.
Mangi, who was convicted of two counts of Intentional Damage to a Protected Computer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5)(A) and one count of Accessing a Protected Computer Without Authorization in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C), will be sentenced on July 21, 2025. She faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison as to each conviction for Intentional Damage to a Protected Computer and one year in prison as to the conviction for Accessing a Protected Computer Without Authorization. Any sentence will be imposed by the Court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nikhil Bhagat and Matthew Chang are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Nina Burney, Mimi Lam, Susan Kreider, Sahib Kaur, Fernanda Gonzalez, Maureen French, and Bella Schou. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Secret Service.