FBI arrests OpenAI employee for allegedly planting recording device in office

An OpenAI employee suspected of secretly planting a recording device in one of the company’s conference rooms has been arrested on criminal charges, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national, was arrested Friday and made his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday. Alfozan was charged with trying to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.

Prosecutors said that Alfozan had worked at OpenAI as an engineer since July 2025. 

On Sept. 30, the company’s employees discovered the audio recording device inserted into a USB port on the back of a television inside an executive conference room. The company later determined that the recording device had been concealed in toilet paper and installed about two days before it was discovered.

The meeting room where it was hidden was often used by OpenAI’s employees to discuss highly confidential and proprietary matters, including research, product plans and business development, the Justice Department said.

In a statement, OpenAI said that after discovering the device, it contacted the FBI and has terminated the employee accused of planting it.

“The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work. At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data,” the company said. 

“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.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that the FBI and its partners had carried out the arrest and that the investigation is ongoing. 

The criminal complaint, made public on Tuesday, alleged that Alfozan used a productivity tool to make inquiries about OpenAI’s building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars, and locations of “leadership and exec” and external partner meetings. 

Other evidence gathered in the investigation, meanwhile, showed that a chatbot account associated with Alfozan’s spouse had also submitted prompts between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30, related to building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating and remote accessing a continuous audio recording device.

A photograph included in the complaint also shows that Alfozan entered the conference room where the device was hidden on Oct. 5 and looked behind the television.

That same day, the complaint says Alfozan left his bag unattended in another room, and the company’s security personnel opened it and found his ID, wallet and another recording device similar to the one planted in the conference room.

Alfozan is due to appear in federal court again on Oct. 19 for a detention hearing. 

WTX US News has asked Alfozan’s lawyer for comment.