The FBI has arrested Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national who worked as an engineer at OpenAI, on a charge of using a device to intercept oral communications, the U.S. Justice Department said. Prosecutors say he planted a hidden audio recorder in an executive conference room in one of OpenAI's San Francisco buildings. He was arrested on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, and made his first appearance in federal court in the Northern District of California on Tuesday, Oct. 13.

What the complaint says

According to the criminal complaint described by the Justice Department, OpenAI staff found the device on or about Sept. 30, plugged into a USB port on the back of a television and concealed in toilet paper. OpenAI determined it had been installed on or about Sept. 28 and that its recordings were encrypted. Alfozan had worked at OpenAI as an engineer since July 2025.

The complaint says security camera footage showed Alfozan near the executive conference room on several dates before the discovery, even though he had no authority to attend meetings there. Meetings in that room frequently covered confidential research, product plans, business deals and government engagements, prosecutors said.

Before Sept. 28, the complaint says, Alfozan used a work productivity tool to look up OpenAI building addresses, meeting rooms, room calendars and "leadership and exec" locations. A chatbot account linked to his spouse, which shared identifiers with his own account, allegedly submitted prompts between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 about how to "build a continuous audio recorder," improve "live listening" and "encrypt the SD card," including prompts about the specific device. On Oct. 5, prosecutors say, he was seen looking behind the television, and the same day OpenAI security found a second, similar recording device in a bag he left unattended.

What OpenAI and officials said

OpenAI said on X that it used its own internal AI models to identify the person responsible and trace the device's origins, then referred the case to the FBI. "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," the company said, according to NBC News and Reuters.

FBI Director Kash Patel said 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." Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said the case "underscores why winning the global super intelligence race is a national security prerogative."

If convicted, Alfozan faces up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charge is an allegation; he has not been convicted. NBC News reports he is due back in federal court on Oct. 19.

Why it matters

The Justice Department framed the prosecution as part of a national-security push to protect U.S. AI work, citing a presidential memorandum on American leadership in super intelligence technology. It lands in the same week that eight states sued OpenAI over ChatGPT's safety for kids, and shows how closely federal officials now treat frontier AI labs' internal discussions as sensitive.