OpenAI engineer arrested in bugging of govt convention room

An OpenAI engineer has been arrested on suspicion of hiding an audio recording system in an govt convention room on the firm’s San Francisco headquarters, federal prosecutors mentioned Tuesday.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi nationwide, was arrested Friday and charged with utilizing or making an attempt to make use of a tool to intercept oral communications. He made his preliminary look in federal courtroom Tuesday and stays in custody.

An unattended bag discovered within the firm’s places of work contained Alfozan’s pockets and identification, in addition to a recording system, in response to the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in San Francisco.

Alfozan has labored as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, prosecutors mentioned.

OpenAI personnel discovered the system Sept. 30. It was plugged right into a USB port on the again of a tv in an govt convention room and had been hid in rest room paper, the criticism says. The firm decided it was put in round Sept. 28, and its contents had been encrypted.

Surveillance footage reveals Alfozan close to the room on a number of dates earlier than the invention, although he was not licensed to enter the room or attend conferences there, prosecutors mentioned. Meetings within the room continuously concerned confidential technical, business, and strategic data, together with proprietary analysis, product plans, and authorities engagements, in response to the criticism.

Before the system was put in, Alfozan used a productiveness device to ask about OpenAI’s constructing addresses, assembly rooms, room capacities, and calendars, in addition to the places of management and outdoors companion conferences, the criticism alleges.

A chatbot account tied to Alfozan’s partner, which shared identifiers together with his personal account, submitted prompts between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 about constructing, putting in, obscuring, and remotely accessing a recording system, prosecutors mentioned. Queries included how you can “construct a steady audio recorder” and “encrypt the SD card,” prosecutors claimed. On Sept. 27 and 28, the account requested concerning the particular system that was later discovered, together with its distinctive MAC handle.

On Oct. 5, the criticism says, Alfozan entered the convention room and appeared to look behind the tv. That identical day, he allegedly left a bag unattended in a unique room. Security personnel who opened it discovered his pockets and ID, together with a second recording system much like the primary.

“For us it’s a matter of nationwide safety,” U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian mentioned in an announcement.

FBI Director Kash Patel mentioned defending U.S. AI innovation is among the many bureau’s highest counterintelligence priorities. Scott Schelble, particular agent accountable for the FBI’s San Francisco area workplace, mentioned the company is dedicated to defending delicate analysis and proprietary know-how.

If convicted, Alfozan faces as much as 5 years in jail and a $250,000 high-quality, adopted by three years of supervised launch.

The case is being prosecuted by the National Security, Cyber & Special Prosecutions Section of the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Northern District of California.

OpenAI mentioned on X (opens in new tab) that after discovering the system, workers used the corporate’s AI fashions to find out what it was and the place it got here from, and referred the matter to the FBI. The firm thanked the brokers and prosecutors who “moved shortly to make an arrest.”

According to OpenAI, its technical surveillance countermeasures staff discovered the system throughout a sweep of a convention room.

OpenAI described the system as refined and designed to evade detection, saying it had superior encryption, audio monitoring capabilities, and a mechanism for transferring information in a manner meant to keep away from monitoring. The firm mentioned investigators used its fashions to investigate forensic photos of the system’s storage and assess modifications within the underlying information.

The firm mentioned it has proof that Alfozan supposed to position different recording units in delicate areas to secretly report conferences.

According to OpenAI, Alfozan was a member of the product staff. The firm mentioned it coordinated the timing of his firing with the FBI to keep away from disrupting the investigation, and he was terminated Friday, the day he was arrested. Between Sept. 30 and that date, OpenAI mentioned, it regularly restricted his entry to methods and areas, then suspended his bodily and community entry, positioned him on go away, and secured his company-issued gear.

A YouTube video final month touted him as the one Saudi worker at OpenAI.

“Honestly, this one 12 months felt like 5 years anyplace else,” he mentioned in response to a query about his expertise.

“The concept of AI is that it handles issues one won’t need to do, to allow them to give attention to duties or hobbies they get pleasure from extra or work they take pleaseure in and let it do the tedious duties,” Alfozan mentioned later within the video.

A LinkedIn profile that matches Alfozan’s identify lists his OpenAI function as engineering lead on the corporate’s AI brokers platform

Before becoming a member of OpenAI, he was a founding engineer at Nash, an AI roads firm for logistics, from 2022 to August 2025, in response to the LinkedIn profile. From 2017 to 2022, he was a senior methods engineer at Meta. His earlier expertise, in response to the profile, features a stint as a methods engineer at Reach Labs, a wi-fi energy startup in Y Combinator’s summer time 2015 batch, and internships at Microsoft, SAP in Berlin and Akamai Technologies.

He has a grasp’s diploma in information science from UC Berkeley, the LinkedIn profile says.

A person within the passenger seat of a automobile at Alfozan’s Millbrae residence mentioned that the household didn’t need to converse to reporters.

OpenAI mentioned it has no indication that Alfozan improperly accessed or took mannequin weights, supply code, or buyer information and has not seen exercise that compromised the security of its merchandise or prospects’ data. The firm mentioned it’s going to proceed to help the FBI’s investigation.

OpenAI mentioned it treats defending its know-how, information and folks “as a matter of nationwide significance” and referred to as the case an instance of how AI can counter refined safety threats.

A detention listening to earlier than U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse is about for Oct. 19.