The U.S. Department of Justice announced on October 13 that Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who works as an engineer at OpenAI, is accused of hiding a recording device in an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco office. He was arrested on October 9 and charged with using, or attempting to use, a device to intercept oral communications. He made his first court appearance on the 13th. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, plus 3 years of supervised release.
OpenAI issued a statement the same day saying it has fired the employee and that there is currently no indication he improperly accessed or leaked model weights, source code or customer data. The FBI is still investigating the case.
The timeline according to prosecutors
According to charging documents cited by Fox Business, Alfozan joined OpenAI in July 2025. The timeline runs roughly as follows:
- Around September 28, an encrypted recorder was plugged into a USB port behind the television in the conference room, wrapped in tissue paper.
- On September 30, the OpenAI team responsible for countering technical surveillance found it during a routine sweep.
- On October 5, security cameras caught him entering the conference room and checking behind the television. The same day, security staff found a second, similar device in an unattended bag of his in another room, along with his wallet and ID.
- On October 9, he was arrested and fired the same day.
Prosecutors also say he repeatedly approached the conference room without authorization, and searched for information on company buildings, conference room schedules, executives' locations and meetings with outside partners. A chatbot account tied to his spouse, which shared identifying information with his own account, allegedly submitted prompts about how to build and conceal such a device, covering continuous recording, Wi-Fi connectivity, live listening and encrypted storage. The descriptions match the devices that were later found. OpenAI says there is evidence he planned to install more devices in other sensitive areas of the office.
In its statement, OpenAI specifically noted that it used its own models while tracing where the devices came from, which helped confirm that a specific employee had installed them a few days earlier. The company said the timing of his dismissal was coordinated with the FBI so as not to tip him off.
How it compares with earlier cases
Insider cases at AI companies have not been rare over the past two years, but most involved copying files. In March 2024, former Google engineer Linwei Ding was indicted by the Justice Department on charges of uploading confidential files related to AI chips and supercomputing infrastructure to personal accounts. In August 2025, xAI sued a former engineer, alleging he took trade secrets with him before moving to OpenAI.
This case works differently. The recorder targeted conversations in a meeting room, the kind of information that often never lands in any file system: funding terms, partnership negotiations and release timing can all be settled verbally in an executive meeting. Traditional data loss prevention tools watch download and outbound transfer logs, and are largely useless against a device stuck behind a television. In the end, it was a routine physical sweep that caught it.
OpenAI tightened its security in 2025. The Financial Times reported at the time that the company had introduced fingerprint access controls, narrowed the number of employees with access to unreleased projects, moved some core technology onto offline systems and denied outside network connections by default. The device was found within two days of being installed, which suggests physical inspections were part of that regime.
What remains unanswered
Neither the charging documents nor public reporting explain why he recorded these conversations, and neither mentions whether a third party directed him. FBI Director Kash Patel called the case a threat to American AI innovation and said counterintelligence is among the bureau's priorities, but did not disclose further lines of inquiry. Alfozan's side has not responded publicly.
What the two devices recorded, for how long, and whether anything was transmitted out will have to wait for later court filings. OpenAI's "no indication" is limited to three categories: model weights, source code and customer data. Whether the contents of the meetings leaked falls outside that statement.
Sources: Fox Business, OpenAI Newsroom statement, CocoLoop, U.S. Department of Justice. The charge and maximum sentence follow the prosecution's documents; the Linwei Ding case and the xAI lawsuit were checked against public records from the Justice Department and the courts.