Washington described the arrest of a Saudi engineer at OpenAI—who is accused of secretly placing a recording device in awhere company executives held meetings, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Abdulrahman Al-Fozan, 35, is currently charged with “interception of communications” rather than espionage, the department added.
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Alfozan, who had been working at OpenAI since July 2025, was arrested on October 9 and appeared yesterday before a federal judge in San Francisco, and, if convicted, faces up to five years in prison.
He remains in custody until his next hearing, which is scheduled for October 19.
“This serious case illustrates why it is important for national security that we win the global race for superintelligence,” said Jay Clayton, director of U.S. intelligence, using the term promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump for AI.
Clayton was appointed earlier this month to head the “Superintelligence Task Force,” a White House working group on AI. “For us, it’s a matter of national security,” added U.S. Attorney Craig Mishakian. Clayton spoke of a battle against “foreign threats.”
At this stage, the Department of Justice is not charging the engineer with either economic espionage or theft of trade secrets.
An OpenAI employee has been arrested and charged with using or attempting to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.
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Advertisement— National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice (@DOJNatSec) October 13, 2026
“There is no indication that this individual gained unauthorized access to model weights, source code, or customer data,” an OpenAI spokesperson told AFP.
Model weights are the parameters that determine how an AI model operates.
Toilet paper
According to court documents, the device was discovered on September 30 by OpenAI’s security teams; it was plugged into a TV’s USB port and hidden inside a roll of toilet paper. It had been placed there two days earlier and contained encrypted recordings.
Meetings held in the room where the device was found primarily concern research, product development projects, and discussions with public authorities.
Before installing the device, the engineer had gathered information—using a productivity tool—about the conference rooms, their schedules, and the locations where company executives meet.
As stated in court documents, from September 24 through 30, an account linked to an AI assistant associated with his wife sent inquiries regarding the construction of a recording device, the real-time eavesdropping on conversations, and the encryption of memory cards—questions that in some cases pertained to features corresponding to those of the device that was found. A second, similar device was found in a bag belonging to him.
OpenAI, which notified the FBI about the case, noted that it used its AI models to analyze the device and identify the person who had planted it.
The company added that it had gradually restricted Alfozan’s access before terminating his employment on October 9, in cooperation with investigators.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Alfozan is an MIT graduate and holds a master’s degree from Berkeley; he worked for five years at Meta and then at a startup before being hired by OpenAI.
Source: Protothema.gr
