Federal prosecutors have charged a Saudi national employed as an engineer at OpenAI with secretly planting a recording device in one of the company’s California offices, in a case that tests how far an employer’s internal oversight can reach when sensitive workplace communications appear to have been targeted from within.
The accused, Abdulrahman Alfozan, faces a federal charge of using or endeavouring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that, according to the complaint, Alfozan “allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications.” Patel added that the alleged goal was to capture information about the company’s AI product.
The matter began, prosecutors say, when the device was installed on 28 September. OpenAI employees did not find it until 30 September. The company then reported the discovery of a “sophisticated recording device” hidden in its San Francisco office to the FBI. The device, wrapped in toilet paper, had been inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room, and it was encrypted.
OpenAI, the maker of the popular chatbot ChatGPT, has said it has no indication that source code, model weights or customer data were inappropriately accessed or taken in the incident. The employee has been fired. The company also stated that it used its own AI models “to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier.”
The investigation, as described by prosecutors, relies heavily on digital and physical evidence. The FBI says the suspect used a “productivity tool” and a “chatbot” to research sensitive locations at OpenAI and how to covertly place audio equipment. Among the chatbot prompts he is alleged to have searched are “building, customising, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing a device.” He is also accused of using the chatbot to ask about “‘build[ing] a continuous audio recorder,’ ‘customis[ing] Wi-Fi . . . connectivity,’ ‘improv[ing] audio and live listening,’ and ‘encrypt[ing] the SD card’.”
On 5 October, prosecutors say Alfozan allegedly returned to inspect the device in the office room. Prosecutors used CCTV camera footage to link him to the scene. That same day, he left a bag unattended in a different part of the building. OpenAI’s security team opened it and found his wallet and ID, along with a second recording device similar to the one recovered from the conference room, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors state that Alfozan had been working as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025. He appeared in court on Tuesday, and it remains unclear whether he has legal representation. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 (£187,000).