OpenAI employee arrested and charged for hidden recording device

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that a Saudi national employed by OpenAI was arrested and charged for hiding a recording device in an executive conference room at the San Francisco office. The DOJ said the company discovered the device around September 30, hidden behind a TV in the conference room and wrapped in tissue paper; the device's contents were encrypted, and it had been installed about two days prior. Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old engineer, was arrested on Friday and appeared in court on Tuesday; he had worked at OpenAI since July 2025 and has now been fired. OpenAI said it used its own models to identify the device and its source, and thereby pinpointed the employee involved, while stating there was no indication the individual accessed or leaked model weights, source code, or customer data. Court documents state that Alfozan used a productivity tool to query company conference rooms, schedules, and executive locations, and a chatbot account linked to his spouse submitted prompts in September about installing and remotely accessing recording devices. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.