Abdulrahman Alfozan: OpenAI Engineer Arrested After Recording Device Found

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old engineer at the AI company OpenAI, has been arrested, according to US federal prosecutors, for allegedly hiding a recording device in an executive conference room at the company in San Francisco. According to the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, the Saudi national was arrested on Friday and made his first appearance in federal court on Tuesday. He remains in federal custody.

What is Abdulrahman Alfozan charged with?

According to federal prosecutors, he is charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications. Investigators say Alfozan has worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025. He reportedly was not authorized to access the room in question, nor was he permitted to attend the meetings held there.

According to prosecutors, surveillance footage shows him near the conference room on several days before the device was discovered. An unattended bag found in the company's offices reportedly contained Alfozan's wallet and ID as well as another recording device, as The San Francisco Standard also reports, citing federal prosecutors.

How was the recording device discovered?

According to the criminal complaint, OpenAI employees discovered the recorder on September 30. It was plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in the executive conference room and was concealed in toilet paper. The contents of the device were encrypted.

The company estimates that the device was installed around September 28. According to the complaint, confidential technical, commercial and strategic matters were regularly discussed in the room, including proprietary research, product plans, business strategy, contacts with government agencies and business relationships.

How has OpenAI responded?

OpenAI said it had dismissed the employee and used its own AI models to determine who had placed the device. As the company announced via its Newsroom account on X, a hidden recording device had been discovered in an office; with the help of the models, it determined that a specific employee had installed it a few days earlier. The case was then referred to the FBI.

There is currently no evidence of unauthorized access to or exfiltration of model weights, source code or customer data, OpenAI added.

What has the FBI said about the case?

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the FBI, together with partners, had arrested an individual who allegedly hid a recording device in their employer's executive conference room to record sensitive communications about superintelligence technology. The investigation is ongoing. Protecting American innovation in this field is among the FBI's top counterintelligence priorities, he said.

No information on a possible motive has been released so far. Alfozan is presumed innocent. No statement from the defendant or his defense was initially available.