A man described as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national employed as an OpenAI engineer, looks behind a television where a recording device had been placed at a conference room in OpenAI offices, in a still image from surveillance video included in a charging document after U.S. federal agents the man and charged him with installing a hidden audio recording device, in San Francisco, California, U.S., on October 5, 2026. | Photo Credit: Handout from Department of Justice via Reuters
An ex-OpenAI employee accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company appears to have received considerable support from the Saudi government, a court filing showed on Monday (October 19, 2026).
U.S. prosecutors allege that the defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi Royal family and that a member of the Saudi military paid for a one-way plane ticket for Mr. Alfozan’s wife and son to return to Saudi Arabia, according to the court document.
Prosecutors made those allegations as they asked a federal judge to keep Mr. Alfozan in U.S. custody to await trial, arguing he is a flight risk.
The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Published - October 19, 2026 09:21 pm IST