Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan? OpenAI Engineer Arrested by FBI for Planting Recording Device in Conference Room

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Tuesday (local time) that an employee of artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI was arrested and charged with using or attempting to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications. The arrests followed the discovery of a “sophisticated recording device” in the executive director’s conference room.

Here’s what we know

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national employed as an engineer at OpenAI, was arrested on October 9 in connection with the case. The criminal complaint states that an OpenAI employee found a hidden audio recording device plugged into a USB port behind a television in a conference room at one of the company’s San Francisco offices around September 30. The device, wrapped in toilet paper, was likely placed there around September 28. OpenAI discovered that its stored data was encrypted.

The Justice Department said Alfozan was not authorized to enter the conference room where the device was found. Surveillance footage showed him near the room several times before the device was discovered. On October 5, he allegedly entered the room to retrieve her.

An unattended bag belonging to Alfozan was also found on October 5. It contained his wallet, identification and other recording equipment similar to the one discovered in the conference room.

FBI Director Kash Patel said, “According to the complaint unsealed today, Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly placed a covert recording device inside an executive employer’s conference room to secretly intercept sensitive communications about the company’s superintelligence technology.”

OpenAI said Alfozan planted the device days before it was discovered and that the FBI “moved in quickly to make an arrest.” The company said it had terminated his employment.

“At this time, we have no indication that this individual has inappropriately accessed or released model scales, source code, or customer data,” OpenAI said in a post. It added that it takes the protection of its “technology, data and people seriously and as a matter of national importance”.

Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan?

According to his LinkedIn profile, Alfozan worked as an engineer at OpenAI. He holds degrees in computer science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in data science from the University of California, Berkeley.

His career began with a software engineering internship at Akamai Technologies in 2012, followed by a similar role at SAP in 2013 and a program management internship at Microsoft in 2014. He worked as a systems engineer at Reach Labs in 2015 and as a senior systems engineer at Meta from 2017 to 2022. He was listed as an engineer at Nash until August 2022 and was then listed as a venture engineer. a partner in RAED Ventures since 2025. Alfozan joined OpenAI in September last year.