U.S. federal prosecutors have arrested and charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national and engineer at OpenAI, for allegedly concealing an advanced recording device within the company’s San Francisco headquarters. According to reports from the San Francisco Standard, Alfozan, who joined the firm in July 2025, is accused of attempting to capture private conversations among staff members.
The device was discovered on September 30 when it was found plugged into a USB port behind a television in an executive conference room that Alfozan was not authorized to access. Investigators noted that the individual had used toilet paper to camouflge the hardware. Prosecutors allege that Alfozan utilized a productivity application to gather intelligence on OpenAI’s facilities and may have consulted a chatbot for instructions on constructing, installing, and hiding a remote listening device.
Evidence presented by investigators includes prompts found on a chatbot account linked to Alfozan’s spouse. These queries asked how to construct a continuous audio recorder and encrypt a secure digital card. In response to the incident, OpenAI stated that it leveraged its own AI models to analyze the recovered hardware and trace its origin back to the employee.
A statement released by OpenAI’s newsroom confirmed the discovery and the referral to the FBI. The company emphasized that while the device was sophisticated, there is currently no indication that Alfozan accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code, or customer data. The engineer was terminated following the incident.
Security personnel also recovered a second recording device along with Alfozan’s wallet and identification from a bag left elsewhere in the office on October 5. Alfozan made his initial court appearance on Tuesday. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and three years of supervised release.
Leave a Reply