OpenAI engineer arrested for allegedly planting spy device in office
A Saudi OpenAI engineer was arrested for allegedly hiding a recorder in an executive conference room.
The U.S. Justice Department charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi engineer employed at OpenAI since July 2025, with illegally intercepting oral communications. OpenAI found a concealed audio recorder on September 30 in a USB port behind a television in a San Francisco executive conference room; it was allegedly installed around September 28 and contained encrypted data. A second similar device was later found in a bag he left unattended. OpenAI fired him, referred the case to the FBI, and said it has no indication he exfiltrated model weights, source code, or customer data. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
- Alfozan was arrested October 9 on an illegal-interception charge
- A concealed recorder was found behind an executive conference-room TV
- Chatbot queries allegedly covered building and hiding recording devices
- OpenAI reports no evidence of weights, code, or customer-data theft
- Vendors
- OpenAI
- Victims
- OpenAI
- Organizations
- OpenAIU.S. Department of JusticeFBI
- Countries
- Saudi ArabiaUnited States
From the original article
2 min read at bleepingcomputer.com
A Saudi OpenAI engineer has been arrested for allegedly planting a hidden recording device in an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco offices to secretly record sensitive conversations. [...]
By Lawrence Abrams · bleepingcomputer.com
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