Photo of Abdulrahman Alfozan checking a recording device in OpenAI's office in San Francisco, California.
Courtesy: U.S. Department of Justice
The Saudi national charged with planting a recording device in a sensitive OpenAI executive conference room in San Francisco was "in frequent communications via WhatsApp with a member of the Saudi Royal Family" throughout 2025 and 2026, prosecutors revealed in a bombshell court filing Sunday.
The defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, communicated with the Saudi royal as recently as Oct. 5 — four days before he was arrested, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco said in the filing, which requests that he be detained without bail.
Prosecutors did not identify the Saudi royal, or say in the filing how Alfozan, who then was working as an engineer at OpenAI, knew that person.
"Among other things, the individual [the royal family member] told the defendant [Alfozan] that an artificial intelligence initiative was being launched in Saudi Arabia and wanted the defendant to join it," prosecutors wrote in their filing.
"In May 2026, the individual told the defendant, 'Saudi needs you more then [sic] the US!' to which the defendant responded '100,' indicating he agreed," prosecutors wrote.
"The individual repeatedly tried to recruit the defendant and asked when he planned to leave OpenAI," prosecutors wrote. " At the time, the defendant said he wouldn't leave until his stock vested."
The filing does not say that the Saudi royal directed Alfozan to install a recording device at OpenAI or steal information from that AI giant.
Alfozan, who lives near the San Francisco airport, is a venture partner at Raed Ventures, a Saudi venture capital firm. Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, joined the firm as a venture partner in 2025. In their filing Sunday, prosecutors did not mention that prince by name, or say that the unidentified royal who communicated with Alfozan had ties to Raed.
The recording device planted at OpenAI's office.
Courtesy: U.S. Department of Justice
Prosecutors in the same filing said that the Saudi government and then, shortly afterward, a member of the Saudi military, booked separate flights for Alfozan's wife, Lujain Alassaf, and their three-month-old baby son to fly out of the United States after his Oct. 9 arrest upended plans for the three of them to fly as a family to Saudi Arabia on Oct. 12.
The wife and son flew from San Francisco to Doha, Qatar, on Oct. 10 on a business-class flight paid for by the unidentified member of the Saudi military, the filing said.
The filing asks that a judge order Alfozan, 35, detained without bail when he appears in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Monday morning.
Alfozan has been in jail since his arrest on a charge of using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. He faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison if convicted. OpenAI fired him after his arrest.
Alfozan's lawyer, William Pernik, in a separate filing asked that the defendant be released with home detention and GPS monitoring, and a bond co-signed by others, and "supported by the written undertaking of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
The Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., has not responded to CNBC's requests for comment on Alfozan since his arrest was announced on Oct. 13
Prosecutors said that in the days around the time that Alfozan allegedly installed the recording device on Sept. 28 in the back of a television in the conference room, "OpenAI executives met with government officials in that very room."
"Defendant's conduct could pose a danger to the national security of the United States," prosecutors said in the filing.
FBI Director Kash Patel, when Alfozan's arrest was announced on Oct. 13, said he allegedly concealed the recording device to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company's artificial intelligence technology.
Prosecutors in their new filing also argued that Alfozan is a flight risk because of his access to "ample resources ... and what appears to be considerable support from a foreign government that has (i) no extradition treaty with the United States; (ii) limitless resources; and (iii) the ability to provide extraordinary travel assistance, including based on similar circumstances in this District," the filing said.
"He has the connections needed not only to flee, but to build a new life in Saudi Arabia. The Court should order the defendant detained pending trial," prosecutors wrote.
Alfozan has spent about 15 years in the United States, working at various tech companies, including Meta, and obtaining a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 2025. He is a legal permanent resident of the United States and has applied to become a naturalized citizen.
For his most recent job, as an OpenAI engineer, Alfozan was hired in July 2025 with an annual base salary of $325,000, which was later increased to $385,000, prosecutors said in their filing. He also received a new hire equity grant of $2.2 million in profit participating units, the filing said.
Alfozan planned to take two months of parental leave after the birth of his son, according to the filing. He and his family were scheduled to fly one-way to Saudi Arabia on Oct. 12.
"On or about September 28, 2026 — about two weeks before their scheduled flight—the defendant inserted a surreptitious audio recording device into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive OpenAI conference room, where the device remained for at least multiple days," the filing said.
The conference room is frequently used for "discussions of highly confidential technical, commercial, and strategic information, including proprietary research, as well as nonpublic information about OpenAI's technical progress and strategic decisions, capabilities, priorities, government engagements, and commercial relationships," the filing said.
The filing also says that Alfozan's iPhone, after his arrest, was found to contain photographs dated Sept. 22 to 28 depicting "at least one additional concealed device as well as what appear to be the input/output panels on televisions and other electronic devices in various locations in OpenAI buildings, including another conference room where sensitive meetings frequently occurred."
"The defendant's residence contained several electronic components similar to those in the
customized devices the defendant installed in the OpenAI conference room," the filing said.
OpenAI also found another recording device in a bag Alfozan inadvertently left behind in a printer room on Oct. 5, the same day he was seen on camera checking behind the TV where the first recording device had been left in the conference room, prosecutors have said. The camera was installed after OpenAI discovered the recording device on Sept. 30, prosecutors said.
His cellphone also contained a deleted note from September 2026 "with links to various recording devices, including devices made by Seeed Studio, the manufacturer of the devices OpenAI found in its offices and the devices FBI agents found in the defendant's residence," the filing said.
Another note, entitled "OpenAI leave," suggests that Alfozan planned early pickup "of the devices he had installed or intended to install and then extending his planned parental 'leave to full,' " the filing said.
In addition to being in contact with a Saudi royal, Alfozan "was pursuing other opportunities in Saudi Arabia, including participating in the Misk Foundation's '2030 Leaders' program, which would have required his in- person participation in Riyadh," prosecutors said.
A day before she left the U.S. with her baby, Alfozan's wife told FBI agents who interviewed her that "her U.S. visa was expiring and that she and her son were permanently moving back to Saudi Arabia — and that her husband, the defendant, eventually intended to do the same," the filing said.
Alfozan's lawyer, Pernik, in his request that Alfozan be released into home detention, said, "nationality is not evidence of flight," and that his planned travel to Saudi Arabia was for "family and immigration reasons."
Alfozan's wife's 60-day post-employment grace period for her own visa was expiring on Oct. 12, the originally scheduled date of their flight, the lawyer said.
"Mr. Alfozan was made aware of OpenAI finding the device per its own filings and OpenAI's
public statements, approximately eight to ten days before he was arrested," Pernik wrote. "If his intention was to flee, he would have done so at that time."
The lawyer also said that Alfozan, who had booked a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia for himself and his family, regularly bought one-way tickets because he has learned they are more cost-effective than changing his flights at the last minute.
Pernik also wrote that the Saudi Consulate General confirmed in writing to the U.S. Pretrial Services Office on Thursday that it "'will not issue any travel documents' to Mr. Alfozan during his release and that, if he requests one, it 'undertakes to promptly notify U.S. Pretrial Services.'"
The attorney argued that prosecutors have not shown that Alfozan is a serious flight risk.
"Mr. Alfozan has lived in the United States for fifteen years and in the Bay Area for roughly ten," Pernik wrote. "Fifty-four people, at least twenty-seven of them in the Bay Area, have written to the Court, and they describe someone who organizes dinners, welcomes newcomers, mentors students, and shows up for friends' weddings, birthdays, and moves."
"That is not the profile of a person with one foot out the door," Pernik said.