A Saudi national employed by OpenAI has been arrested after allegedly planting a sophisticated recording device inside one of the company San Francisco offices.

The United States Department of Justice said Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was arrested on October 9 and appeared in federal court on October 13.

Alfozan, who worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, is accused of installing a concealed audio recording device in an executive conference room used for highly confidential discussions.

According to the criminal complaint, the device was discovered on September 30, plugged into a USB port on the back of a television and concealed in toilet paper. Investigators believe it was installed around September 28.

The device was described as thumb sized, with a microphone and ability to connect to a camera. Its stored data was encrypted and inaccessible.

The Justice Department said surveillance footage showed Alfozan near the conference room multiple times, although he was not authorised to access the room or attend meetings there. He allegedly returned on October 5 and appeared to inspect the area behind the television.

Investigators also found a similar customised device in Alfozan personal bag and said OpenAI has evidence he intended to place additional devices in sensitive areas to secretly record meetings.

Prosecutors further alleged that Alfozan used a productivity tool to search for information about OpenAI office buildings, meeting rooms, calendars, schedules and executive locations. A chatbot account connected to his spouse allegedly contained queries about remote audio recording, WiFi connectivity and encrypting memory cards.

OpenAI said it used its internal AI models to identify the person responsible and trace its origin. The company said it has no indication at this time that the individual inappropriately accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code or customer data.

The employee has been terminated and the matter was referred to the FBI, which is continuing the investigation. If convicted of using or attempting to use an electronic device to intercept oral communications, Alfozan faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars.