An OpenAI employee has been arrested in California over allegations that he secretly planted a recording device in an executive conference room, the US Justice Department said.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national, was arrested on Friday and appeared initially in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday. He is charged with attempting to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Alfozan, who had worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, concealed the device in toilet paper before inserting it into a USB port on the back of a television in the room.
Employees discovered the device on September 30. The conference room was regularly used for discussions involving confidential and proprietary information, including research, product plans and business development.
OpenAI said it contacted the FBI after the discovery and dismissed the employee accused of planting the device. The company said it had found no indication that he had improperly accessed or removed model weights, source code or customer data.
“The FBI’s investigation is ongoing and we will continue to support their work,” the company said. “We take protecting our technology, data, and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance.”
The criminal complaint alleges that Mr Alfozan used a workplace productivity tool to search for information about OpenAI’s buildings, conference rooms, room capacities and calendars, as well as the locations of leadership, executive and external partner meetings.
Investigators also found prompts submitted between September 24 and September 30 by a chatbot account associated with Mr Alfozan’s spouse. The prompts allegedly concerned building, customising, installing, recording audio with, testing, concealing and remotely accessing a continuous recording device.
A photograph included in the complaint allegedly shows Mr Alfozan entering the conference room on October 5 and looking behind the television. The complaint says that, on the same day, he left a bag unattended in another room, where security staff found his identification, wallet and another recording device similar to the one found in the conference room.
FBI director Kash Patel said the agency and its partners had carried out the arrest and that the investigation remained ongoing.
Mr Alfozan is due to appear in federal court again on October 19 for a detention hearing. His lawyer has been approached for comment.
