An engineer at OpenAI allegedly concealed an audio recording device in a piece of toilet paper and attached it behind a monitor inside an executive conference room at one of the company’s San Francisco offices, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, who federal prosecutors describe as a 35-year-old Saudi Arabian national and US permanent resident, allegedly spent several weeks querying an unspecified “productivity agent” and an “AI chatbot” to plan his alleged surveillance operation. He used an internal OpenAI tool to ask about meetings scheduled in the targeted conference room.
He also appears to have used a chatbot account associated with his spouse to ask various technical questions about setting up a covert audio recording device, according to prosecutors and the court filing.
OpenAI’s security team also allegedly found an additional recording device that had not been installed in Alfozan’s bag at the office.
Alfozan couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. He made an initial appearance in US district court in San Francisco on Tuesday on one charge of “use of an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.” If convicted, Alfozan faces up to five years in prison. He joined OpenAI in July 2025 and was fired last Friday to coincide with his arrest.
Federal Bureau of Investigation director Kash Patel said in a statement that Alfozan aimed “to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology,” but prosecutors nor OpenAI have offered any information so far about a potential motive.
“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data,” OpenAI said in a statement on X. “We take protecting our technology, data, and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance.”
OpenAI discovered the bug—which was allegedly “concealed in toilet paper” and “inserted into a USB port on the back of a television” in the conference room—on September 30 during a countersurveillance sweep.
Alfozan previously worked at a cargo logistics startup and at Meta, according to a purported LinkedIn profile for him. In a recent podcast interview, Alfozan said he was also part of a group of Saudi engineers in Silicon Valley who offered consulting services to Saudi organizations.
The LinkedIn profile lists Alfozan as a part-time “venture partner” at RAED Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Saudi Arabia. Neither RAED Ventures nor Meta immediately responded to WIRED’s request for comment.
Last year, the Trump administration signed a pact with Saudi Arabia granting the kingdom access to advanced chips and AI technologies that might otherwise be restricted over national security concerns. Saudi investment firms remain a major source of capital for US tech companies.
Executives Only
According to the complaint, Alfozan allegedly planted the listening device “no later than on or about September 28, 2026.”
The conference room Alfozan targeted “can be reserved only by executives and executive assistants,” and is typically used “for internal leadership meetings,” “technical and product sessions,” and “external briefings” with business partners and government officials, according to the complaint. It is frequently used for discussions involving “highly confidential” information, including about research, products, business strategy, and government relationships, the complaint stated.
OpenAI’s statement called the recording device “sophisticated.” Authorities allege that the device Alfozan planted was called Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense, “a thumb-sized development board with a detachable camera sensor, digital microphone, and microSD storage.” It currently retails on Seeed’s website for $13.99. OpenAI’s security team tried to export the data stored on the microSD card, but were unable to review it because it was encrypted.
After discovering the device, OpenAI says it notified the FBI and was able to connect it to Alfozan after reviewing chat logs and surveillance footage, and searching a bag he left unattended at the office. The company then gradually disabled his access to company systems as the investigation was ongoing.
According to the complaint, OpenAI security personnel discovered the bag that Alfozan left unattended in a printer room on October 5. The security team went through the bag, which contained a second encrypted Seeed listening device and other personal items connected to Alfozan, including his wallet. Prosecutors say Alfozan later reported the bag as missing to OpenAI and subsequently recovered it from the company’s lost and found.
He followed up with unnamed personnel at OpenAI to say that some of the items that were supposed to be in the bag were still missing—including a credit card, about $500 in cash, and two AirPods—but neglected to mention the second listening device, which had been removed from the bag by OpenAI security.