OpenAI Engineer Faces Five Years Over Hidden Recorder in Meeting Room

By Grace Kim

A 35-year-old OpenAI engineer faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 (£190,000) fine after the FBI charged him with planting a hidden audio recorder in one of the company's most sensitive meeting rooms.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national and U.S. legal permanent resident since 2020, appeared in a federal court in California this week on charges of using or attempting to use a device "to intercept oral communications." His contract with OpenAI has been terminated. Prosecutors have not said what he intended to do with any recordings.

Here's what the court complaint lays out.

What does the complaint allege?

Between 17 August and 16 September, Alfozan repeatedly asked a productivity AI assistant about meeting rooms and their schedules, according to the official complaint. Queries included "how about external partners, where would they usually meet with OpenAI at" and "can you list today's meeting in this room."

In September, he allegedly used a chatbot linked to his spouse to ask how to build and install a recording device — and how to access it remotely.

The room in question wasn't casual space. The complaint states it regularly hosted discussions of "highly confidential technical, commercial and strategic information," plus OpenAI's "government engagements and commercial relationships." Alfozan had no authority to access meetings there. Still, CCTV captured him near the conference room on eight separate occasions in September.

The takeaway: the alleged surveillance targeted the room where OpenAI discusses exactly the kind of information competitors and governments would pay for.

How was the device found?

On 30 September, OpenAI staff discovered what the complaint calls a "surreptitious audio recording device" behind a television. Someone had wrapped it in toilet paper.

OpenAI then installed a camera in the conference room. On 5 October, it filmed Alfozan entering the room and appearing to look behind the television where the device had been inserted, the complaint says.

That same day, he allegedly left an unattended bag in a different room. Security opened it and found "another recording device" similar to the first one — along with Alfozan's wallet and ID.

The FBI arrested him on 9 October. A detention hearing is set for 19 October to decide whether he stays in custody while the case proceeds.

Did any data actually leak?

OpenAI says no — and it used its own AI to check. In a post on X, the company said it had deployed its own models to "understand the device and where it had come from."

It also stated: "At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data."

For a company whose valuation rests on proprietary frontier models, that sentence does a lot of work.

Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan?

Alfozan joined OpenAI as an engineer in July 2025, roughly a year before the alleged planting attempt. He was educated in the U.S. and has held legal permanent residency since 2020.

His lawyer, William Pernik, told the BBC: "Like countless Americans, Mr Alfozan came to this country years ago as a young person with a dream. These allegations appear wholly out of character for him, and we will relentlessly investigate all evidence produced by the government in this case to understand what actually happened, who was responsible and any possible reasons why."

Pernik added: "In the meantime, we respectfully ask everyone to withhold judgment until full facts become known. Like every one of us, Mr Alfozan is presumed innocent, and what has been made public is an accusation, not a finding of guilt."

The FBI investigation is ongoing. With a detention hearing days away and no public explanation yet for the recordings' intended use, the case will test how AI labs police insider access to rooms where their most valuable secrets are spoken aloud.