Credit: Henry Franklin via Shutterstock Abdulrahman Alfozan, the OpenAI engineer charged over a hidden recording device, had one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia booked for three days after his arrest, according to a court filing. He has entered no reported plea and is presumed innocent. The OpenAI engineer charged over a hidden recording device had a one-way ticket out of the United States booked for three days after his arrest. A court filing shows it.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had tickets to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul, with his wife and another family member, Bloomberg reported. He was arrested on 9 October and the flight was booked for 12 October. The filing was the government’s argument for sealing the case. Prosecutors wrote on 8 October that he had the means, and would have an incentive, to flee if he learned of it before his arrest.
He is charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, which carries up to five years. He has entered no reported plea and is presumed innocent. The device itself was reported last week. It was found on 30 September behind a television in an executive conference room, and a second was allegedly found on 5 October in a bag left unattended.
OpenAI says no model weights, source code or customer data were taken. It says it used its own models to understand the device and identify who planted it. Its finance chief was asked about the case in Dublin on Wednesday. She thanked the security team and declined to give details.
What is new is who is prosecuting it. The FBI is investigating, the National Security Division’s counterintelligence section assisted, and the US attorney called it a matter of national security. The case is tied to a presidential memorandum on American leadership in superintelligence. Europe has no equivalent instrument, though OpenAI is adding 200 Dublin jobs and holds offices in Paris, Brussels and London.
No foreign government is alleged to have directed him. No motive is alleged in the material released, and nothing says what the device captured. The encryption may be part of that. Its contents were encrypted when OpenAI found it, and nothing released says whether they have since been read.
The complaint says he had no authority to enter the room, which hosted meetings on confidential technical, commercial and strategic matters. He joined in July 2025 and was dismissed the day he was arrested. He is next due before Magistrate Judge Alex Tse in San Francisco on 19 October. Get the TNW newsletter ✕ Close Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
