OpenAI engineer arrested by FBI for hiding a recorder in a management meeting room

The San Francisco Federal Public Prosecutor's Office accuses a 35-year-old engineer of hiding a encrypted recording device behind a television set in a room reserved for the managers of OpenAI.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi engineer employed by OpenAI since July 2025, was arrested on Friday, October 9 and charged with using or attempting to use a device for intercepting oral communications. According to the complaint from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, an audio recorder had been plugged into the USB port of a television in a management meeting room at the San Francisco headquarters and camouflaged in toilet paper. OpenAI's counter-surveillance team discovered it on September 30 during a scan; it was reportedly installed around the 28th.

Chatbot queries at the heart of the case

According to the prosecution, the engineer had previously inquired, via a productivity tool, about the addresses of the buildings, the rooms, the agendas and the location of meetings with management and partners. A chatbot account linked to his wife, sharing identifiers with his own, is said to have asked questions from September 24 to 30 about the manufacture, concealment and remote access of a recorder, then about the precise device found, up to his MAC address. On October 5, a bag left unattended contained his wallet, papers and a second similar device.

OpenAI says it used its own models to analyze forensic images of encrypted storage, then gradually restricted its access before firing him on the day of his arrest, in coordination with the FBI. Prosecutor Craig Missakian calls it a national security case. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.