Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI employee charged over hidden recording device
US authorities charged Abdulrahman Alfozan after OpenAI said staff found a concealed recorder in an executive conference room at its San Francisco offices and reported the matter to the FBI.
- Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was charged with using or trying to use a device to intercept oral communications.
- The Justice Department said he was arrested on 9 October 2026, and OpenAI later terminated him.
- OpenAI personnel found a recording device in an executive conference room at its San Francisco offices on or around 30 September 2026; the complaint said it had been hidden in toilet paper and placed in a television USB port around 28 September 2026.
- The complaint said CCTV showed Alfozan near the room on several dates before the device was found, and it alleged earlier use of a productivity tool and a chatbot account linked to his spouse to gather details and generate device-related prompts.
- OpenAI said it referred the matter to the FBI after using its own AI models to understand the device, and said it had no indication that model weights, source code or customer data were accessed.
US authorities charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, with using or trying to use a device to intercept oral communications. The Justice Department said he was arrested on 9 October 2026, and OpenAI later terminated him.
OpenAI said staff found a recording device in an executive conference room at its San Francisco offices on or around 30 September 2026. The complaint said the device had been hidden in toilet paper and placed in a television's USB port around 28 September 2026.
The complaint said CCTV showed Alfozan near the room on several dates before the device was found, although he had no authority to enter meetings there. It also said the room was used for confidential technical, commercial and strategic discussions.
The complaint further alleged that an unspecified productivity tool was used to collect information about OpenAI's buildings, meeting rooms and calendars, and that a chatbot account linked to his spouse was used to generate prompts about building, customising and remotely accessing a device. OpenAI said it referred the matter to the FBI after using its own AI models to understand the device and where it had come from, and said it had no indication of model weights, source code or customer data being accessed.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Alfozan had allegedly hidden a covert recorder to capture sensitive communications about OpenAI's super intelligence technology. If convicted, he faced a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
Named in this story
People
- Abdulrahman Alfozan
- OpenAI employee charged in the case
- Kash Patel
- FBI director who commented on the allegation
Companies
- OpenAI
- employer that found the device and referred the matter to the FBI
Governments and agencies
- U.S. Department of Justice
- said Alfozan was arrested and charged
- U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
- received OpenAI's referral and issued a statement
Places
- San Francisco
- city where OpenAI's offices were located
How the source tells it
The piece was a straightforward criminal-complaint report, but it leaned on alarmed language from prosecutors and on OpenAI's own self-promotional account of its response.
- alarm loaded descriptions of a hidden recorder, secret capture and confidential communications
- threat inflation a workplace-surveillance allegation was framed with counterintelligence and national-security language
- vendor boosterism OpenAI credited its own AI models with understanding the device and tracing its origin