The lawyer for a former OpenAI employee accused of placing a recording device at the company’s San Francisco headquarters has described the allegations as “wholly out of character”, saying his client’s planned journey to Saudi Arabia had been booked in advance.
William Pernik, representing Abdulrahman Alfozan, said the suspect was “surprised by the search and arrest” as he prepared to travel with his wife and young child on a one-way flight on 12 October.
A federal complaint suggests the journey may have been intended to help Alfozan “flee” the United States. Mr Pernik said the flight was “prepaid”, although the reason for the trip and the date it was booked remain unclear.
Mr Pernik said his information was still “limited” and that he intended to respond more fully “in court of law” once he had access to all the details. Alfozan is due to appear in court again on 19 October.
He also urged the public not to draw conclusions from Alfozan’s Saudi nationality, saying people should “refrain from jumping to conclusions based on the nature of the allegation or our client’s national origin”.
Alfozan has been a legal permanent resident of the US since 2020 and has lived and worked there since enrolling on a computer science course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011.
His career has included internships at SAP and Microsoft, five years at Meta and the founding of a Silicon Valley start-up. He joined OpenAI in July 2025 and became a partner at Saudi-based venture capital firm RAED Ventures that year.
OpenAI security investigation
OpenAI dismissed Alfozan on 9 October, the same day the FBI arrested him. The investigation began after the company’s security team discovered the recording device during a routine sweep on 30 September.
According to the complaint, Alfozan allegedly placed the device on 28 September after spending more than a month planning the act using ChatGPT and an internal agentic AI tool. OpenAI said its security programme was designed to guard against threats including insider risks, cybercriminals and nation states.
Neither the FBI nor OpenAI has found evidence that information was leaked. Mr Pernik said Alfozan had not been charged with sharing trade secrets, but with breaching “a general federal recording statute”.
“Our government has the right to protect our country’s intellectual property and technological assets, and it should, but it must be consistent with our values and our laws,” Mr Pernik said.
He added: “Like any other person, Mr. Alfozan is entitled to presumption of innocence and due process of law. It is our duty to ensure that he is treated fairly and justly. That’s what we are going to do.”
