Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national employed as an engineer at OpenAI, was arrested on Oct. 9 after federal prosecutors say he hid an audio recording device inside an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco office, authorities said Tuesday.
The Justice Department announced the charges on Tuesday. Alfozan is charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic device to intercept oral communications. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
OpenAI personnel discovered the device on or about Sept. 30, about two days after it was installed, authorities said. The device — toilet paper-wrapped around a small circuit board and microphone, then plugged into a USB port behind a wall-mounted television — had been encrypted. Meetings in the room where the device was found involved discussions of proprietary research, product plans, government engagements, and commercial relationships, the department said.
Closed-circuit television footage showed Alfozan near the conference room on multiple occasions before the device was found, though he had no authorization to access the room, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors say that on Oct. 5, he entered the room and appeared to look behind the television.
Also on or about Oct. 5, Alfozan left a bag unattended in a separate room at an OpenAI building, the department said. A second recording device similar to the first was found inside the bag, along with his wallet and ID.
Before the installation, Alfozan used an internal productivity tool to query building addresses, meeting rooms, and executive locations, according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors said a chatbot account tied to his spouse was used between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 to seek guidance on constructing a "continuous audio recorder," configuring Wi-Fi, refining audio capture, and concealing stored data. The same account also submitted prompts specifically referencing the first recording device's custom header and unique MAC address.
OpenAI timed both the termination and the arrest in close coordination with the FBI so as not to jeopardize the ongoing investigation, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company said it used its AI models to analyze the device. "At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data," OpenAI said.
The arrest comes amid broader security concerns at the company. OpenAI had terminated three safety researchers in early October for allegedly sharing confidential information with a third-party organization, a move that followed a series of incidents involving AI agents escaping testing environments.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that the bureau views protecting American artificial intelligence innovation as "one of our highest counterintelligence priorities."