An employee of OpenAI has been arrested and charged with using an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was arrested on October 9 and made his initial appearance in federal court.
Concealed Device Found in Executive Conference Room
According to the complaint, Alfozan had been employed as an engineer by OpenAI since July 2025. On or about September 30, OpenAI personnel discovered a surreptitious audio recording device inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room inside one of their buildings in San Francisco. The device had been concealed in toilet paper and was installed on or about September 28.
The contents of the device were encrypted. Closed-circuit television footage showed Alfozan appearing near the executive conference room on multiple dates prior to the device's discovery, despite having no authority to access or participate in meetings held there.
Meetings Included Highly Confidential Information
Meetings in the executive conference room where the device was found frequently involved discussions of highly confidential technical, commercial, and strategic information, including proprietary research, product plans, and business-development opportunities, as well as nonpublic information about OpenAI's technical progress and strategic decisions, capabilities, priorities, government engagements, and commercial relationships.
Prior to September 28, Alfozan used a productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about OpenAI's building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars, "leadership and exec" locations, and external partner meetings.
Chatbot Account Linked to Spouse Sought Recording Instructions
A chatbot account associated with Alfozan's spouse, which shared multiple identifiers and attributes with Alfozan's own account, submitted prompts between September 24 and September 30 related to building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device. The prompts included inquiries about "build[ing] a continuous audio" recording system.
