OpenAI engineer suspected of espionage for secretly installing a recording device

Employee arrest and case details

US federal authorities have charged 35-year-old Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan with secretly installing recording equipment in an OpenAI office. The aim of the action was to capture confidential discussions dedicated to the company's technologies. The arrest took place on Friday, a week after a hidden audio recorder was discovered within the structure of the ChatGPT developer. Alfozan had been working at OpenAI since July 2025.

If found guilty, the defendant faces a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of 250,000 US dollars.

Concealment mechanism and suspect's activities

According to data from the federal court in San Francisco, the company's name did not appear in the court documents themselves. However, OpenAI confirmed in a separate official statement the fact of discovering a "complex recording device hidden in one of the offices". Technically, the device was connected to a television via a USB port and disguised as a roll of toilet paper.

Case materials indicate that Alfozan repeatedly appeared near the conference room without permission. It was also established that he used special tools to gather information about office locations and meeting schedules. A chatbot linked to the suspect's wife was used to obtain data on recording and Wi-Fi network connection.

OpenAI's reaction and investigation results

An OpenAI representative stated: «Ми використали наші моделі для аналізу пристрою та з'ясування його походження; в результаті було встановлено, що його встановив конкретний співробітник за кілька днів до цього. Ми передали справу в ФБР і вдячні агентам і прокурорам, які оперативно здійснили арешт. Розслідування ФБР триває, і ми продовжимо надавати їм сприяння» (We used our models to analyze the device and determine its origin; as a result, it was established that it was installed by a specific employee a few days before this. We handed the case over to the FBI and are grateful to the agents and prosecutors who promptly carried out the arrest. The FBI investigation is ongoing, and we will continue to provide them with assistance).

The company emphasised that there is currently no information indicating that the suspect obtained unauthorised access to model weights, source code, or client data, nor did he attempt to steal them. The employee has been dismissed.

Although the case materials do not specify exactly how Alfozan planned to use the recorded conversations, OpenAI noted that the device had a high level of technical complexity, was equipped with anti-detection measures, advanced encryption features, and audio monitoring capabilities. According to the company, there is evidence that the engineer planned to install additional listening devices in various rooms of the office building to record meetings.