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 on Friday and made his first appearance in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday. Alfozan was charged with using an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications.
Prosecutors said that Alfozan was working OpenAI as an engineer since July 2025.
On September 30, company employees discovered the audio recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room. The company later determined that the recording device was hidden in toilet paper and had been installed about two days before it was discovered.
The meeting room where it was hidden was often used by OpenAI 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, the FBI contacted and 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 that this individual inappropriately accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code or customer data,” the company said.
“We take protect our technologydata, 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 made the arrest and that the investigation is ongoing.
Alfozan’s attorney, William Pernik, noted to CBS News that his client is presumed innocent, and cautioned against “jumping to conclusions at this very early stage of the case when very little information is known,” or trying to “politicize” a prosecution based on factors such as nationality.
The criminal complaint, made public on Tuesday, alleges 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 executive” and external partner meetings.
Other evidence collected in the investigation, meanwhile, showed that a chatbot account associated with Alfozan’s spouse also sent instructions between Sept. 24. and on Sept. 30 submitted, in connection with the construction, customization, installation, audio recording, testing, duplication and remote access to a continuous audio recording device.
A photo included in the complaint also shows that Alfozan entered the conference room where the device was hidden on October 5 and looked behind the television.
That same day, the complaint says Alfozan left his bag unattended in another room, and company security personnel opened it and planted his ID, wallet and another recording device similar to the one in the conference room.
Alfozan is scheduled to appear in federal court again on October 19 for a detention hearing.