FBI Arrests Saudi OpenAI Engineer Over Hidden Recording Device in San Francisco Office
SAN FRANCISCO — Federal agents have arrested an OpenAI engineer accused of secretly planting a hidden audio recording device inside an executive conference room at the artificial intelligence company's San Francisco offices, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi Arabian national who had worked at OpenAI since July 2025, was arrested on October 9 and made his first appearance in federal court in San Francisco on October 13. Prosecutors have charged him with using or attempting to use an electronic device to intercept oral communications. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to the FBI complaint, the device was discovered on September 30 by OpenAI's technical surveillance countermeasures team during a routine sweep of a company conference room. The thumb-sized gadget was plugged into a USB port on the back of a television and disguised with a small piece of toilet paper. It contained a microphone, could connect to a camera, and was wrapped in advanced encryption designed to evade detection.
Investigators believe the device was installed on or about September 28. Its stored data remains encrypted and inaccessible. A second, similar customized device was later found in Alfozan's personal bag.
OpenAI confirmed the arrest in a public statement, saying it used its own AI models to analyze the device and identify the employee responsible within days. The company said it also found evidence that Alfozan intended to plant additional recording devices in other sensitive areas of its offices to secretly record meetings.
The case has drawn sharp attention in Washington because of what happens inside that conference room. Executives regularly hold discussions there about highly confidential technical research, product plans, commercial strategy, and government engagements — including proprietary details of OpenAI's models and partnerships.
"At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data," OpenAI said, adding that the employee was terminated and the matter referred to the FBI.
Alfozan, an engineering lead who worked on OpenAI's Agents Platform, was previously employed at Meta for five years. Prosecutors say he was arrested three days before he, his spouse, and a family member were scheduled to board a one-way flight to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul.
The case lands at a moment of intense global competition over AI talent and technology, with governments and companies racing to build more powerful systems — and to keep their secrets out of rivals' hands.
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