Federal prosecutors say a 35-year-old OpenAI engineer arrested for planting a hidden recording device in an executive boardroom had booked one-way tickets out of the United States just days after his capture.
Abdulrahman Alfozan held tickets to fly to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul alongside his wife and another family member, according to government court filings first reported by Bloomberg. Federal agents arrested Alfozan on October 9. The flights were scheduled to depart on October 12.
Prosecutors cited the one-way travel plans on October 8 when arguing that the criminal complaint needed to remain sealed. The government contended that Alfozan had both the financial means and clear incentive to flee the country if he discovered law enforcement was closing in.
Alfozan stands charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, an offense that carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in prison. He has entered no plea and remains presumed innocent.
Encrypted Hardware Behind Office Screens
The internal investigation began on September 30, when staff discovered a surveillance tool concealed behind a television in a company conference room. That space routinely hosted closed-door meetings regarding strategic planning, trade secrets, and technical development. A second piece of hardware turned up October 5 inside an unattended bag on the company's premises.
OpenAI stated that the incident did not compromise customer information, core source code, or proprietary artificial intelligence model weights. The company also claimed it deployed its own internal AI models to analyze the hardware and pinpoint who placed it.
Alfozan joined the AI developer in July 2025. The company fired him immediately following his arrest on October 9.
At an event in Dublin, OpenAI's chief financial officer acknowledged the episode briefly, thanking internal security personnel while declining to address specific allegations.
Federal Scrutiny Mounts in San Francisco
The case has drawn direct involvement from the FBI alongside the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division. The US attorney handling the prosecution framed the incident as a matter of national security, linking enforcement priorities to a presidential memorandum regarding domestic leadership in superintelligence.
Yet the public filings outline no foreign sponsor. The government has not alleged that a foreign state directed Alfozan, nor have prosecutors detailed a concrete financial or political motive.
Investigators may still be untangling the hardware itself. OpenAI reported that the audio equipment stored data in an encrypted format when employees recovered it, and public records do not state whether investigators have managed to decrypt any recorded files.
Alfozan remains scheduled to appear before US Magistrate Judge Alex Tse in San Francisco federal court on October 19.
TBFiled by The Tech Business Desk
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