A 35-year-old national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia employed by OpenAI was arrested for allegedly installing an audio recording device to intercept oral communications, the Justice Department announced.
“Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was arrested on Friday, October 9, 2026, and made his initial appearance in federal court today. Alfozan is currently in federal custody. He is next scheduled to appear in federal court on October 19, 2026, for a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse,” the Justice Department stated.
“According to the complaint unsealed today, Alfozan had been employed as an engineer by OpenAI, identified as ‘Company 1’ in the complaint, since July 2025. On or about September 30, 2026, OpenAI personnel discovered a surreptitious audio recording device (‘Recording Device 1’) inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room inside one of OpenAI’s buildings in San Francisco,” the Justice Department continued.
“OpenAI determined that the device, which had been concealed in toilet paper, was installed on or about September 28, 2026, and that its contents were encrypted,” it added.
Saudi OpenAI engineer bugged top secret meetings with toilet paper trickery, feds say after bombshell arrest
https://t.co/Gc2ac3ogUN pic.twitter.com/YkV6mpdy7w
— New York Post (@nypost)
October 13, 2026
CNBC shared further:
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that Alfozan “allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology.”
Alfozan is also listed as a partner at Raed Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, according to its website. The firm announced on Feb. 6, 2025, that H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, had joined the firm as a venture partner. Alfozan was announced as a venture partner two days later.
The Raed announcement for Alfozan lists Meta, Microsoft and SAP as previous roles and said he studied computer science and engineering at MIT.
Raed, which is headquartered in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We discovered a sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices. We used our 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. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work,” OpenAI stated.
“At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated,” it continued.
“We take protecting our technology, data, and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance. Our security program is designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation states, and this case is an example of how AI can help address these sophisticated security threats,” it added.
We discovered a sophisticated recording device that was hidden inside one of our offices. We used our 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…
— OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom)
October 13, 2026
Watch more below:
The FBI arrested a Saudi national who was working for the U.S. as an engineer for Open AI, accusing him of planting a listening device behind a TV to spy on the tech giant's executives in a conference room at the company headquarters.
@DavidMuir reports.
https://t.co/wL9QjTkidH pic.twitter.com/LZbn3O9HK9
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews)
October 14, 2026
More from the
New York Post:
Meetings in that conference room apparently involved high-level discussions of the company’s confidential plans, such as proprietary research, OpenAI’s technical capabilities, its government relationships and more.
Footage showed Alfozan appearing near the conference room multiple times, even though he had no authority to access the room or participate in those meetings, the complaint said.
He has worked for the San Francisco-based AI company since July 2025, the Department of Justice said.
“Any attempt to illicitly obtain protected information from U.S. super intelligence and technology companies threatens both American innovation and the national security interests those advancements support,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott Schelble of the FBI San Francisco Field Office.
Alfozan also used chatbots to plot the alleged recording efforts, asking about OpenAI’s building addresses, meeting room capacities and calendars, authorities said.
He even requested information about the locations of “leadership and exec,” per the complaint.
Another chatbot account associated with his wife allegedly included queries on ways to install and hide audio recording devices.
On Oct. 5, a photo allegedly captured Alfozan entering the conference room to get a sneak peek at the recording device. Around that same time, OpenAI security workers found a similar recording device in Alfozan’s unattended bag, the DOJ said.
The post
Justice Department Says Saudi National OpenAI Employee Arrested For Allegedly Installing “Surreptitious Audio Recording Device” At Company Headquarters appeared first on
100PercentFedUp.com.
Continue reading...
[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
