OpenAI engineer charged over hidden listening device

Federal prosecutors have charged an OpenAI engineer with planting a hidden recording device inside an executive conference room in San Francisco. The Justice Department named him as Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national who had worked at OpenAI since July 2025. He was arrested October 9 and made his first court appearance Tuesday. Read more: OpenAI engineer charged over hidden listening device.

Alfozan is charged with using or trying to use a device to intercept oral communications. The federal count carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is due back in court October 19. It was not immediately clear whether he had retained a lawyer.

According to the criminal complaint, the device was wrapped in toilet paper and plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in the conference room. Its contents were encrypted.

How the company traced it

OpenAI said on social media that it used its own AI models to analyze the device and trace where it came from. The company says that process identified an employee who had planted it a few days earlier.

OpenAI then referred the case to the FBI. That is OpenAI's own account of how its systems were used, and it has not been independently verified.

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Prosecutors allege Alfozan used a workplace software tool to look up building addresses, meeting room capacities and executive calendars. They say he did this before the device was planted around September 28.

They also allege that a chatbot account linked to his spouse, which shared identifying details with his own account, sent prompts in the days beforehand about building and hiding an audio recorder. Prosecutors say those prompts included details matching the device's specific hardware.

Security footage reportedly showed Alfozan near the conference room on repeated occasions before the device was found, though he had no authority to enter it. The footage also showed him checking behind the television.

On October 5, he left a bag unattended in another OpenAI room. Security staff who opened it found his wallet, identification and a second recording device similar to the first.

FBI and prosecutors respond

The case is part of a broader federal focus on AI theft. FBI Director Kash Patel said protecting American AI innovation from theft is a top counterintelligence priority for the bureau, and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the alleged theft of intellectual property tied to AI technology "poses a serious threat" to national security.

OpenAI said it has no indication Alfozan inappropriately accessed or copied model weights, the trained numerical parameters that make an AI model work, along with source code or customer data. The company said he was fired and that it would keep supporting the investigation.

Alfozan is due back in federal court on October 19.