According to a report by Reuters on October 13, the U.S. Department of Justice stated on the 12th that federal agents in the United States have arrested a Saudi national who worked as an engineer at OpenAI. The agent was accused of installing concealed recording devices in a meeting room of the company's senior management.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the suspect in this case is 35-year-old Abdullahehman Alfozan, who has been an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, and previously worked at Meta and Microsoft.
The Department of Justice stated that on September 30th, officials from OpenAI discovered a recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a TV in a meeting room at an office building in San Francisco.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI, this thumb-sized device was equipped with a microphone and could be connected to a camera. It was hidden inside toilet paper. The device was installed around September 28th, and the data stored on it is encrypted and inaccessible. Investigators later found another similar custom-made device in Alfzon’s carry bag.
The recording equipment was wrapped in toilet paper and connected to a television. United States Department of Justice
OpenAI posted on X, stating that the company used its internal AI models to identify the person responsible for placing the device and tracked the origin of the device. The company said there is evidence that the employee also intends to place more recording devices in sensitive areas of the company's offices, in order to secretly record meetings.
OpenAI said, “Currently, we have no indication that the individual has ever accessed or leaked model weights, source code, or customer data inappropriately. The employee has been terminated.” The company also stated that it has handed over this incident to the FBI, and the FBI is continuing its investigation.
FBI Director Katherine Patelli said in a statement: "Abdulah Alfarzan is suspected of concealing an undercover microphone in his employer's executive meeting room to secretly obtain sensitive communications regarding the company's artificial intelligence technology."
According to the FBI’s complaint, within about a month up to September 16th, Al-Fazan also used an AI agent to query meeting room calendars and related functions. The Wall Street Journal further revealed that in mid-September, he repeatedly asked this AI agent for information related to meeting rooms, including questions like “can you list the meetings that are held in this room today” and “where do external partners usually meet”.
Since September 2020, Alfzon has been a legal permanent resident of the United States. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release.
Additionally, according to The Information, OpenAI is in preliminary talks to acquire Trail of Bits. Trail of Bits is a startup company that identifies and fixes vulnerabilities in open-source software. The report cites people familiar with the matter, stating that the negotiations are still underway, but they could also collapse.
OpenAI previously stated on the 9th that investigations revealed that three researchers had violated the company’s policies regarding the handling of sensitive information, and the company has terminated them.
