OpenAI engineer arrested for allegedly planting spy device in office

A Saudi OpenAI engineer has been arrested for allegedly planting a hidden recording device in an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco offices to secretly record sensitive conversations.

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

The DOJ says OpenAI security personnel discovered the recording device on September 30, plugged into a USB port behind a television in an executive conference room.

According to the DOJ, OpenAI determined that the device had been concealed in toilet paper, was installed around September 28, and contained encrypted data.

"On or about Sept. 30, OpenAI personnel discovered a surreptitious audio recording device (Recording Device 1) inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room inside one of their buildings in San Francisco," says the DOJ press release.