A now ex-employee at OpenAI has been arrested for allegedly trying to spy on executives using an audio recording device that was secretly planted in a conference room.
The suspect, 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan, appeared in a US District Court today on charges of spying, according to the US Justice Department, which described the case as a matter of national security.
In late September, a covert audio-recording device was found plugged into the back of a TV in a conference room used to discuss confidential matters. “OpenAI determined that the device, which had been concealed in toilet paper, was installed on or about Sept. 28, and that its contents were encrypted,” the Justice Department said.
(Credit: DOJ)
The investigation traced the device to Alfozan, a Saudi National who was hired in July 2025. Surveillance footage showed that Alfozan had appeared near the conference room “on multiple dates prior to the device’s discovery, although he had no authority to access or to participate in meetings occurring in the executive conference room,” the department said.
Alfozan also allegedly used an unnamed productivity tool to ask about OpenAI’s meeting rooms and executives’ locations. A chatbot account belonging to his spouse also “submitted prompts between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 related to building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device,” the Justice Department added. (OpenAI says it can review a user’s ChatGPT content when “investigating abuse or a security incident.”)
(Credit: DOJ)
It then appears investigators tried to catch the culprit by installing a secret camera behind the TV after the listening device was found. The Justice Department notes “that on Oct. 5, Alfozan entered the executive conference room and appeared to look behind the television into which Recording Device 1 had been inserted,” which was captured on camera.
(Credit: DOJ)
On the same day, Alfozan also left a bag unattended in another room at the office. “OpenAI security personnel found and opened Alfozan’s bag, inside which they discovered — among other things, including Alfozan’s wallet and ID — another recording device (Recording Device 2) similar to Recording Device 1,” the department says.
(Credit: DOJ)
OpenAI added that it initially used the company’s AI models to “understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. We referred the matter to the FBI, and we’re grateful to the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest.” Alfozan has since been fired.
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The targeted executive conference room was frequently used to hold confidential discussions on a range of sensitive topics, including “proprietary research, product plans, and business-development opportunities,” as well as strategic decisions and government relations.
A LinkedIn page for Alfozan says he was an engineering leader for AI and data systems. However, OpenAI notes: “At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data.”
The complaint against Alfozan was also just unsealed. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, followed by three years of supervised release, according to federal officials. In the meantime, the case is already raising suspicions that the Saudi Arabian government may have been involved.
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
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