OpenAI Engineer Arrested for Hiding Secret Recording Device at Company's Offices

An engineer who worked at OpenAI, one of the world's most famous artificial intelligence companies, has been arrested for allegedly hiding a secret recording device inside a private conference room at the company's San Francisco offices. The man, Abdulrahman Alfozan, is 35 years old and is a citizen of Saudi Arabia. He was arrested on October 9 and is being held in federal custody while he waits for a court hearing on October 19. If he is found guilty, he could spend up to five years in federal prison.

Federal prosecutors say Alfozan hid the recording device behind a television in a conference room used by top OpenAI leaders for private and sensitive discussions. The device was found on September 30 during a security sweep of the room. It had been plugged into a USB port and wrapped in toilet paper to keep it hidden. The contents stored on the device were encrypted, meaning they were scrambled so that others could not easily read them.

The conference room where the device was found was used for very important and private conversations. Those talks included details about OpenAI's research, its product plans, its relationships with the government, and other information the company does not share with the public. Prosecutors say that security camera footage showed Alfozan near that conference room several times before the device was discovered, even though he was not allowed to be in the room or attend meetings there.

Security workers also found a second recording device hidden in an unattended bag that allegedly belonged to Alfozan. Inside the same bag, they found his wallet and his identification. Prosecutors also say that before hiding the device, Alfozan searched for information about company buildings, meeting rooms, and executive calendars, and that someone used a chatbot linked to his wife's account to ask questions about how to build, hide, and encrypt recording devices.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche posted about the case on the social media platform X, saying the alleged theft of private communications from OpenAI was taken 'extremely seriously.' He added that stealing technology related to advanced AI is a serious threat to national security. However, prosecutors have not yet said who Alfozan was trying to give the recordings to, or what his exact reason was for hiding the device.

Alfozan had worked at OpenAI since July 2025 as a member of the product team, and the company fired him on October 9, the same day he was arrested. OpenAI said it worked with the FBI to carefully plan the timing of his firing. Between September 30 and October 9, OpenAI slowly limited his access to company systems and buildings before fully cutting it off and placing him on leave.

A profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn, which appears to match Alfozan, says he worked as an engineering lead on OpenAI's AI agents platform. Before joining OpenAI, he reportedly worked at an AI company called Nash and spent about five years as a senior engineer at Meta, the company that owns Facebook. He is said to have studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later earned a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

OpenAI said its security team discovered the hidden device during a routine check of its offices, and after finding it, they removed it, closed the room, and called the FBI. The company described the device as 'sophisticated,' meaning it was advanced and carefully designed to avoid being caught. It had strong encryption, audio-recording abilities, and a system for sending data that was built to avoid detection. OpenAI also said it used its own AI models to help study the device and figure out who had placed it there.

Even though government officials and OpenAI have both described this case as a national security concern, there are still many things that are not known. Prosecutors have not publicly said whether Alfozan was working for a foreign government, a spy agency, or a business competitor. They also have not explained what he planned to do with any recordings he may have collected. These unanswered questions are expected to play a big role as the case moves through the federal court system.