A former OpenAI engineer has been charged with secretly installing a recording device in a company conference room and was allegedly only days away from fleeing to Saudi Arabia before his arrest, federal prosecutors said.
OpenAI engineer charged; prosecutors seek detention
Federal prosecutors identified the defendant as 35-year-old Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan and said in a government memo filed Sunday that he had been fired from OpenAI. Prosecutors said Alfozan’s wife and young son left the United States the day after his arrest on a one-way ticket that had been booked and paid for by a Saudi military official.
In the memo prosecutors wrote, “Ultimately, the defendant has little incentive to remain in the United States to see this case through.” They said Alfozan has “ample resources —including his significant compensation from a decade of high-tech employment in the Bay Area and at least two bank accounts in Saudi Arabia — and what appears to be considerable support from a foreign government.” Prosecutors also noted Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the U.S. and are asking a judge in federal court in San Francisco to detain Alfozan until trial; a judge will consider the request Monday.
Alfozan’s lawyers did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment ahead of Monday’s hearing. In court filings the defense said Alfozan had worked at OpenAI since July 2025 and that he purchased one-way tickets for his family to Saudi Arabia more than two weeks before prosecutors say the recording devices were installed. The defense said the couple planned to spend Alfozan’s roughly two-month paternity leave in Saudi Arabia following the birth of their U.S.-citizen son.
Prosecutors said that after his arrest Saudi officials purchased new plane tickets for the wife and son so they could leave the U.S. sooner than the Oct. 12 flight Alfozan initially booked.
Alfozan’s lawyers also wrote that he is on track to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, with an interview scheduled next month; they said he has been a legal permanent resident since 2020, has lived in the U.S. for 15 years and attended MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. The defense asked that, rather than remain in federal custody, Alfozan be confined to his family’s home in the San Francisco suburbs with GPS monitoring, travel restrictions and a requirement to surrender his passport, saying his plan was to return to the Bay Area where his home, career and community are.
Alleged bugging, communications with Saudi royal family
Prosecutors said they have not detailed what Alfozan might have intended to do with any recordings but alleged he was in “frequent communication” with a member of the Saudi royal family, who repeatedly tried to recruit him to an artificial intelligence venture being launched in Saudi Arabia. Prosecutors quoted WhatsApp messages in which Alfozan told the unnamed person he would not leave OpenAI until his stock vested, even as he explored other opportunities in the Middle Eastern kingdom.
According to prosecutors, Alfozan concealed an audio recording device inside toilet paper and plugged it into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room he was not authorized to access. Security cameras captured him entering the room and checking behind the television after installing the device, which remained in place for several days before being discovered on Sept. 30. Prosecutors said the conference room was typically used for meetings involving company leaders, government officials and other executives and for “discussions of highly confidential technical, commercial, and strategic information, including proprietary research, as well as nonpublic information.”
OpenAI told prosecutors the recording device was sophisticated, designed to evade detection and featured advanced encryption and audio-monitoring capabilities, and that the company had evidence Alfozan planned to place other listening devices elsewhere in the office.
Alfozan has been charged with using or endeavoring to use “an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.” If convicted, he faces a five-year prison sentence.
Marcelo reported from New York.
