OpenAI Employee Arrested for Secretly Recording Conference Room Conversations

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi citizen and OpenAI employee, has been arrested by the FBI on charges of secretly recording conversations in a conference room at the company’s San Francisco offices. The arrest was made three days before Alfozan, his spouse, and an unnamed family member were set to depart for Saudi Arabia via Istanbul.

The incident came to light when OpenAI’s technical team discovered a sophisticated listening device on September 30 during a sweep of the conference room. The device was plugged into a USB port on the back of a television, hidden by a small piece of toilet paper, according to the FBI’s findings.

OpenAI contacted the FBI after discovering the highly advanced listening device, which had features such as encryption, audio monitoring capabilities, and a mechanism for transferring data intended to evade detection. The company described it as one that could easily be missed if not thoroughly inspected.

The conference room where Alfozan recorded conversations is a space used by executives to discuss confidential information with government officials. They share proprietary research, product plans, business-development opportunities, nonpublic details about OpenAI’s technical progress and strategic decisions, capabilities, priorities, government engagements, and commercial relationships in these meetings.

Alfozan was an engineering lead at OpenAI who worked on the company’s ‘Agents Platform.’ He had previously spent five years working for Meta before graduating from both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2016) and UC Berkeley (2025).

The FBI didn’t immediately arrest Alfozan after learning about the device, nor did OpenAI fire him right away. Both actions eventually occurred on October 9 when he was taken into federal custody. He will appear in court again for a detention hearing on October 19.

Alfozan faces up to five years in prison plus three years supervised release if convicted of secretly recording conversations without consent. Between September 30 and October 9, OpenAI worked with the FBI to coordinate Alfozan’s termination so as not to interfere with their investigation.

The company took precautions after discovering the device: they restricted Alfozan’s access to systems and parts of the office, suspended his network access, placed him on leave, and removed his company-issued equipment. However, there was still a security breach when he allegedly entered the conference room again on October 5 to check behind the TV for the device.

CCTV footage captured Alfozan entering the conference room in question on October 5. Additionally, around that time, an unattended bag containing his wallet and identification along with another similar recording device was left in a different room at OpenAI.

The FBI claims that before installing the listening device from September 24 to September 30, Alfozan consulted with an unnamed chatbot account associated with his spouse about building, installing, and encrypting audio recordings. Court documents reviewed by Fortune indicate that Alfozan prompted this chatbot on how to create custom MAC addresses, iPhone hotspot profiles, complete live listening sessions, and even build a second recording device.

Alfozan used OpenAI’s ‘productivity tool’ to inquire about the company’s building addresses, meeting rooms, capacities, calendars, locations of leadership meetings, external partner meetings, and other information. At this point in time, neither OpenAI nor the FBI has found any evidence that data was leaked.

The incident remains under investigation as it is unclear whether Alfozan successfully recorded conversations using these devices or if he had access to sensitive company information through his internal tool usage.

Alfozan’s actions sparked an opportunity for OpenAI to showcase its technology in combatting similar threats. The company stated that they used their models ‘to understand the device’ and determine which employee planted it, but more work needs to be done before resolution is reached.

Apart from Alfozan’s case, neither party has found any evidence of a data breach or unauthorized access to sensitive information at this time. OpenAI continues its internal investigation alongside cooperation with law enforcement agencies.