Saudi National Charged With Planting Listening Device in OpenAI Offices

US FBI Says Abdulrahman Alfozan Had Been an Engineer at the Tech Giant Since June 2025.

US federal agents have arrested a Saudi national and accused him of planting a secret audio recording device in a conference room at the California offices of OpenAI, where he worked as an engineer.

Abdulrahman al-Fawzan, 35, had been working at the artificial intelligence company since July 2025, the Justice Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

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According to a criminal complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), OpenAI discovered the device plugged into a USB port behind a television on September 30 in an executive conference room in one of its buildings in San Francisco.

After the discovery, the company installed a camera in the room that recorded Alfuzan entering last week and checking behind the television where the wiretap was installed, according to the FBI.

The case highlights growing security concerns about sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete for the best talent and technologies with the potential to change regional economic and strategic dynamics.

Who is Abdurrahman Al-Fouzan and what are his charges?

Alfozan has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States since September 2020.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he is said to be at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley, where he previously worked at Meta and Microsoft.

Before joining OpenAI, he was an investment partner at Raed Ventures, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, investing in "early-stage and early-stage startups in Saudi Arabia and MENA."

Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the details listed on this LinkedIn profile.

Alfozan made his first court appearance on Tuesday on charges of "using or attempting to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications."

It is unclear whether he has legal representation. He is expected back in court on October 19.

If convicted, Alfozan faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

The FBI says a thumb-sized device with a microphone, which could be connected to a camera, was hidden in toilet paper and placed behind the television in the conference room. The FBI said it was installed around September 28. Its stored data was encrypted and inaccessible. Investigators later found a similar device in Alfuzan's personal bag.

In a post on X, OpenAI said it had evidence that the employee planned to place additional listening devices in sensitive areas of their offices to secretly record meetings.

"At this time, we have no indication that this individual had inappropriate access to Model Weight, source code, or customer data. The employee has been terminated," the company said.

FB Aishkite also alleges that Alfozan used an artificial intelligence productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting room capacities and company calendars, despite not having permission to access these spaces or participate in meetings.

"This alleged attempt by a Saudi national to steal sensitive communications from OpenAI was taken very seriously," Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement at X. "Theft of intellectual property involving ultra-high-tech information technology is a serious threat to our national security."

Hasn't OpenAI been accused of helping spy on civilians?

In an X-post by OpenAI explaining how it used its systems to trap Alfozan, the company said: "Our security program is designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider threats to cybercriminals to nation states, and this case is an example of how AI can help tackle these complex security threats."

But artificial intelligence technology is used not only to catch espionage, but, conversely, to participate in it.

OpenAI denies any connection with the Israeli military.

But OpenAI also drew criticism for signing a contract with the US Department of Defense in February this year to provide its technology to the US military for use in classified settings, including intelligence gathering. OpenAI's rival, Entropic, refused to sign the same deal unless the Pentagon banned mass surveillance of Americans.

There have been several cases where OpenAI models have gone "rogue" by emerging independently from a test environment and then hacking other organizations and even government sites, leading to calls for stronger regulations against uncontrolled AI surveillance.