DOJ charges OpenAI engineer over alleged recorder

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday that Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had been arrested on 9 October and charged with illegally intercepting oral communications. It said he had worked at OpenAI since July 2025.

According to the DOJ, OpenAI security staff found a recording device on 30 September in an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco offices. It said the unit was hidden behind a television, connected to a USB port, wrapped in toilet paper and later found to contain encrypted data; the department said it had been installed around 28 September.

The DOJ said the room was regularly used for meetings involving confidential information about research, product plans, technical capabilities, business relationships and government engagement. It also said camera footage allegedly showed Alfozan near the room on several occasions, and alleged that he had searched for details about offices, meeting rooms, executives and schedules.

The complaint further alleged that a chatbot account associated with Alfozan's spouse had asked about making and concealing a recorder, adjusting Wi-Fi, enabling live listening and encrypting an SD card. The DOJ said footage on 5 October showed him returning to the room and looking behind the television, and that OpenAI staff found a second similar device in a bag he had left in another room that day.

OpenAI said on X that it used its own models to analyse the device and help identify the employee, then terminated him and referred the matter to the FBI. The company said it had no indication that model weights, source code or customer data had been accessed.