Abdulrahman Alfozan was arrested Friday and charged in connection with a hidden audio recorder found in an OpenAI executive conference room at San Francisco headquarters. He made his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday and remains in custody.
Craig Missakian said the case involves oral communications and added, "For us it is a matter of national security," as prosecutors described confidential technical, commercial and strategic meetings in the room. If convicted, Alfozan faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
OpenAI San Francisco headquarters
Prosecutors said OpenAI personnel found the device on Sept. 30 after it had been installed around Sept. 28. They said it was plugged into a USB port on the back of a television and concealed in toilet paper. The contents were encrypted.
OpenAI said employees used its AI models to identify what the device was and where it came from before the matter was referred to the FBI. The company thanked the agents and prosecutors who moved quickly to make an arrest.
Alfozan and the room
Alfozan has worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025. Prosecutors said surveillance footage shows him near the room on multiple dates before the discovery, and that he was not authorized to enter the room or attend meetings there.
They also said that before the device was installed, he used a productivity tool to ask about OpenAI’s building addresses, meeting rooms, room capacities and calendars, along with the locations of leadership and outside partner meetings. A chatbot account tied to his spouse submitted prompts between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 about building, installing, obscuring and remotely accessing a recording device.
Oct. 5 second device
On Sept. 27 and 28, that account asked about the specific device later found, including its unique MAC address. On Oct. 5, Alfozan entered the conference room and appeared to look behind the television, then allegedly left a bag unattended in a different room.
Security personnel who opened the bag found his wallet and ID, along with a second recording device similar to the first. The case now moves forward in federal court with a charge that centers on whether the devices were placed to intercept oral communications inside a room used for confidential meetings.
