Federal prosecutors have charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national and engineer at OpenAI, with attempting to intercept oral communications by secretly installing a recording device within the company’s San Francisco headquarters. Prosecutors say, alfozan has been working as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025.
The incident came to light after OpenAI staff discovered a sophisticated recording device hidden inside the executive conference room on 30 September. The equipment was found concealed in toilet paper and inserted into a USB port on the back of a television set.
OpenAI reported the discovery to the FBI and successfully utilized their own internal AI models to determine that the device had been planted by an employee just two days earlier. The company confirmed that the engineer responsible has been fired, stating there is no evidence suggesting sensitive information, such as source code or customer data, was compromised. According to openAI, the maker of the popular chatbot ChatGPT,, It has no indication that source code, model weights or customer data were inappropriately accessed or taken in the incident. According to openAI, They were able to use their AI models “to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier”.
According to FBI Director Kash Patel, Alfozan is accused of attempting to capture sensitive internal communications regarding the company’s AI products. Federal investigators allege that the suspect used productivity software and chatbot tools to research how to bypass security and install illicit audio equipment. He is also accused of using the chatbot to ask about “‘build[ing] a continuous audio recorder,’ ‘customiz[ing] Wi-Fi… connectivity,’ ‘improv[ing] audio and live listening,’ and ‘encrypt[ing] the SD card'”.
Documented search queries purportedly linked to Alfozan include instructions on building, customizing, and encrypting audio recorders, as well as managing Wi-Fi connectivity and remote access protocols.
The investigation intensified on 5 October, when prosecutors claim Alfozan returned to the site to inspect the hidden recorder. CCTV footage was utilized by law enforcement to link him to the area at that time. Prosecutors released CCTV images of the suspect allegedly checking on the secret recorder.
On that same date, security personnel recovered an unattended bag within the building that contained the suspect’s identification, wallet, and another recording device similar in nature to the one discovered in the conference room.
Alfozan appeared in federal court on Tuesday to face the charges. If he is found guilty of the offense, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison alongside a potential fine of $250,000. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 (£187,000), if found guilty.
While the legal proceedings are ongoing, the identity of his legal counsel has not been publicly disclosed. It’s unclear whether he has legal representation.
