An alarming story is breaking Tuesday afternoon involving a Saudi national who worked as an engineer for OpenAI and an alleged attempt to secretly record conversations inside the company’s executive offices in San Francisco, California – and the details get weirder the deeper you dig into it.
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin broke the news in post on X:
BREAKING: A Saudi national/OpenAI employee has been arrested by the FBI after he was allegedly caught placing an eavesdropping/audio recording device inside of OpenAI’s executive conference room in San Francisco, CA. Feds say Abdulrahman Alfozan made his first appearance in federal court today. OpenAI says they immediately contacted the FBI after they discovered the device & are grateful the feds made a quick arrest. Alfozan was caught on CCTV cameras at OpenAI. From the complaint: “Alfozan had been employed as an engineer by the company identified as “Company 1” since July 2025. On or about Sept. 30, Company 1 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 Company 1’s buildings in San Francisco. Company 1 determined that the device, which had been concealed in toilet paper, was installed on or about Sept. 28, and that its contents were encrypted.”
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) October 13, 2026
BREAKING: A Saudi national/OpenAI employee has been arrested by the FBI after he was allegedly caught placing an eavesdropping/audio recording device inside of OpenAI’s executive conference room in San Francisco, CA. Feds say Abdulrahman Alfozan made his first appearance in federal court today. OpenAI says they immediately contacted the FBI after they discovered the device & are grateful the feds made a quick arrest. Alfozan was caught on CCTV cameras at OpenAI.
From the complaint:
“Alfozan had been employed as an engineer by the company identified as “Company 1” since July 2025. On or about Sept. 30, Company 1 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 Company 1’s buildings in San Francisco. Company 1 determined that the device, which had been concealed in toilet paper, was installed on or about Sept. 28, and that its contents were encrypted.”
The suspect, 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan, had worked for OpenAI since July 2025, and was arrested Friday and "charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications."
According to federal prosecutors, OpenAI personnel discovered a hidden recording device during a security sweep on September 30. The device had been plugged into a USB port behind a television in an executive conference room and concealed in toilet paper. Yes, toilet paper.
The conference room where the device was found was used by senior OpenAI executives to discuss the company's research, its product planning, and other confidential matters. Alfozan allegedly wasn't authorized to even be in the room, much less record in it.
Prosecutors say he also searched OpenAI's internal systems for conference rooms, calendars, executive meetings, and building locations before the recording device was discovered. Authorities later found another recording device in a bag Alfozan allegedly left behind at the OpenAI offices.
Federal prosecutors have not accused him of colluding with the Saudi government or any other foreign power, but U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian made it clear how seriously the federal government is taking this case.
"For us it is a matter of national security," he said.
Alfozan made his first appearance in federal court on Tuesday and was ordered to remain in custody pending a detention hearing on October 19.
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