OpenAI engineer arrested for allegedly trying to eavesdrop on executive meetings
A recording device wrapped in toilet paper and plugged into the back of a television in an executive conference room at OpenAI’s San Francisco office has led to the arrest of one of the company’s engineers.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who had worked at OpenAI as an engineer since July 2025, was arrested on October 9 and charged with using or endeavoring to use a device to intercept oral communications, the US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
“We discovered a sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices. We used our models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier,” OpenAI wrote in a post on X, adding that it referred the matter to the FBI.
(Source: US Department of Justice)
How the device was found
According to the DOJ, OpenAI staff discovered the device around September 30, inserted into a USB port on the back of the TV. The company determined that it had been installed two days earlier and that its contents were encrypted.
Meetings in that room regularly involved confidential discussions about proprietary research, product plans, business opportunities, government engagements and commercial relationships, the complaint says. Security camera footage showed Alfozan near the room on several dates before the discovery, although he had no authority to enter it or to take part in the meetings held there.
On October 5, he was recorded walking into the conference room and appearing to look behind the TV where the device had been placed. That same day, he left a bag unattended in another room in an OpenAI building. Security staff opened it and found his wallet and ID, along with a second recording device similar to the first.
(Source: US Department of Justice)
Workplace searches and chatbot prompts
Court documents describe what Alfozan allegedly looked into before the device was planted. Prior to September 28, he used a workplace productivity tool to make “multiple inquiries” about OpenAI’s building addresses, meeting rooms, their capacities and calendars, meetings with external partners, and the locations of “leadership and exec.”
Prosecutors also cite a chatbot account associated with Alfozan’s spouse, which they say shared “multiple identifiers and attributes” with his own chatbot account. Between September 24 and 30, that account submitted prompts about building, customizing, installing, testing, obfuscating and remotely accessing an audio recording device, according to court documents.
The requests cited by prosecutors include “build[ing] a continuous audio recorder” and “customiz[ing] Wi-Fi . . . connectivity,” along with “improv[ing] audio and live listening” and “encrypt[ing] the SD card.”
On September 27 and 28, the same account submitted prompts “specifically related” to the device later found in the conference room, including its custom header and unique MAC address, the DOJ alleges.
“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated,” OpenAI stated.
“Protecting American SI innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.
If convicted, Alfozan could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000, followed by three years of supervised release.
