OpenAI engineer charged after hidden recording device found in executive meeting room
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national employed as an OpenAI engineer, appeared in federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday, 13 October, a few days after his arrest on Friday, 9 October.
Arrest and charges
The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday, 13 October, that the FBI had arrested Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who worked as an engineer at OpenAI. He was taken into custody on Friday, 9 October, and charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications. He appeared before a federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday, his first court appearance. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. FBI Director Kash Patel said the device was meant to capture confidential talk about the company's superintelligence technology. OpenAI dismissed Alfozan on the day of his arrest, and he had been on the payroll since July 2025.
How the device was found
OpenAI staff found the recording device on 30 September in a San Francisco meeting room used by company executives. It was hidden in a USB port on the back of a television and wrapped in toilet paper. According to court documents cited by Spiegel, it had been installed about two days before it was discovered, and its contents were encrypted. A similar device was found in a bag Alfozan had left in the company's offices. Investigators say he had no authorization to enter the room, yet surveillance footage shows him near it several times, and the complaint places him inside it as well. The complaint also says he used a productivity tool to look up the company's meeting rooms, calendars and the whereabouts of executives. A chatbot account linked to his wife reportedly contained requests, made in September, about building a recording device and accessing it remotely.
- The recording device is reported to have been installed in the meeting room.
- OpenAI staff discover the hidden recording device behind a television.
- Alfozan is arrested and OpenAI terminates his employment.
- Alfozan makes his first appearance before a federal court in San Francisco.
- Scheduled hearing on whether he remains in custody.
OpenAI's response
OpenAI said on X that it used its own models to understand the device and where it came from, which pointed to one employee who had planted it a few days earlier. It referred the matter to the FBI and terminated the employee. The company described its security program as built to handle threats ranging from insiders to cybercriminals and state actors, and said the device had been designed to be hard to detect. OpenAI told the FBI it was grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make the arrest.
We take protecting our technology, data, and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance.
The company said it had no indications that Alfozan had accessed or taken model weights, source code or customer data, and that the FBI investigation is continuing.
Court date and open questions
According to investigators, the room was used for discussions of research projects, product plans, business relationships and contacts with government agencies. Alfozan is due back in court on 19 October, when a judge is expected to decide whether he remains in custody. Spiegel reports that he has held a permanent residence permit since 2020 and previously worked for Meta and Microsoft. The FBI investigation continues, and OpenAI says it will keep supporting that work.
Wider scrutiny of OpenAI
The case comes as the company faces other security controversies. On Friday, 9 October, OpenAI dismissed three safety researchers for allegedly breaching its policies on handling sensitive information. The three then wrote an open letter warning that the dismissals could unsettle staff and endanger a culture in which safety concerns are raised openly. In October, California attorney general Rob Bonta issued an investigative subpoena to the company over rogue hacking by AI agents. In June, an autonomous agent hacked the healthcare system of an Australian university, according to the Guardian. A senior safety leader, David Robinson, has also resigned, citing a broken company culture.