A Saudi national working as an OpenAI engineer was arrested on October 9 after he was accused of installing a hidden recording device inside the AI company’s office in San Francisco.
The employee named Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was charged with using or attempting to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. He has been employed as an engineer at the company since July 2025.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Alfozan holds a degree in computer science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in data science from the University of California, Berkeley.
He previously worked at other tech giants, including Microsoft in 2014 and Meta between 2017 and 2022. He served as a founding engineer at Nash before joining OpenAI.
According to the complaint submitted to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), around September 30, an OpenAI employee discovered a sophisticated recording device inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room.
“According to the complaint unsealed today, Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.
OpenAI determined that the device, which was wrapped in toilet paper, was installed on or about September 28. The company found that its stored data was encrypted.
Despite being unauthorised to enter the conference room, surveillance footage showed Alfozan visiting the room multiple times before the device was found.
On October 5, he allegedly entered the room to retrieve it. A bag belonging to Alfozan that contained his wallet and a second recording device was also confiscated from another building.
A chatbot associated with Alfozan’s spouse also received multiple prompts about building and installing audio recording devices.
“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated,” OpenAI wrote on X.
The FBI is investigating the case.
