OpenAI Engineer Arrested for Planting Spy Device
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national and engineer at OpenAI, was arrested on 9 October for allegedly planting a recording device in a conference room. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said the device was discovered on 30 September in an executive conference room at one of OpenAI’s San Francisco offices.
A recording device, concealed in toilet paper, was connected to a USB port behind a TV in a conference room. OpenAI discovered the device’s data was encrypted. Alfozan lacked authorization to enter the room where it was found. The device was believed to have been placed there around 28 September.
Surveillance footage showed Alfozan near the room several times before the device was discovered. On 5 October, he allegedly entered the room to retrieve it. An unattended bag belonging to Alfozan was also found on 5 October, containing his wallet, identification, and another recording device similar to the one discovered in the conference room.
FBI Director Kash Patel stated: “According to the complaint unsealed today, Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s superintelligence technology.”
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OpenAI reported that Alfozan placed the device shortly before its discovery and praised the FBI’s swift arrest. The company terminated his employment and found no evidence of unauthorized access to model weights, source code, or customer data.
Alfozan worked as an engineering leader at OpenAI and holds a degree in computer science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in data science from the University of California, Berkeley. His career began with a software engineering internship at Akamai Technologies in 2012. He subsequently completed a software engineering internship at SAP in 2013, followed by a programme management internship at Microsoft in 2014. In 2015 he worked as a systems engineer at Reach Labs, and from 2017 through 2022 he served as a senior systems engineer at Meta, gaining experience in large-scale infrastructure before moving to OpenAI.
Prior to joining OpenAI in September of last year, Alfozan held positions at SAP, Microsoft, Reach Labs, and Meta. He also co-founded Nash, serving as an engineer until August 2025, and has been a venture partner at RAED Ventures since 2025.
