Abdulrahman Alfozan (right) with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photo: X
A 35-year-old Saudi national employed as an engineer at OpenAI has been arrested in the United States after a concealed recording device was discovered in an executive conference room at the artificial intelligence company’s San Francisco office, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Abdulrahman Alfozan was arrested on Friday, October 9, and made his initial court appearance on Tuesday, October 13. The complaint alleges that he installed the device to secretly record conversations involving sensitive company information.
The device was discovered on September 30, inserted into a USB port behind a television in the conference room. Investigators allege that it had been installed on September 28 and concealed using toilet paper.
According to the complaint, meetings held in the room covered OpenAI’s proprietary research, product plans, business development, technical progress, strategy, capabilities, priorities, government engagements and commercial relationships.
According to the complaint, before September 28, Alfozan used a productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about OpenAI’s building addresses, meeting rooms, room capacities and calendars, locations associated with its leadership and executives, and meetings with external partners.
A chatbot account associated with his spouse reportedly shared multiple identifiers and attributes with Alfozan’s own account. Between September 24 and 30, the account submitted prompts about building, customising, installing, recording audio with, testing, concealing and remotely accessing a device.
The prompts included requests to “build a continuous audio recorder”, “customize Wi-Fi connectivity”, “improve audio and live listening” and “encrypt the SD card”, according to the complaint.
The same account also submitted prompts specifically related to the device found at OpenAI, including its custom header and unique media access control (MAC) address, between September 27 and 28, the complaint said.
Investigators also reviewed office surveillance footage that allegedly showed Alfozan near the conference room. The complaint states that he did not have authorisation to install the device.
On October 5, Alfozan allegedly looked behind the television, where a second similar recording device was found in an unattended bag containing a wallet and identification documents.
FBI Director Kash Patel addressed the case in a post on X, saying the FBI and its partners had arrested Alfozan over the alleged installation of the recording device. He thanked Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Attorney General Todd Blanche and other law enforcement partners for their support.
In the DOJ press release, Patel said, “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.”
“Protecting American SI innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities,” he added.
In a statement posted on X, OpenAI said it had discovered a “sophisticated recording device” hidden inside one of its offices. The company said it used its models to understand the device’s origin and identify the employee allegedly responsible for planting it before referring the matter to the FBI.
OpenAI said it had found no indication that model weights, source code or customer data had been improperly accessed or extracted. The company confirmed that the employee had been terminated and said the investigation was continuing.
If convicted, Alfozan faces up to five years in prison, a USD 250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
This post was last modified on October 14, 2026 11:51 am