An OpenAI employee named Abdulrahman Alfozan has been arrested for planting a recording device in one of the company’s offices. Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, hid a recording device inside an OpenAI building in San Francisco last month. He was arrested and charged on October 9.
In a statement, the AI lab said it referred the matter to the FBI after discovering the device, which was concealed in toilet paper and inserted into a USB port on the back of a television.
FBI Director Kash Patel said that the OpenAI employee was trying to “secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology.”
(Also read: OpenAI says ‘sophisticated recording device’ planted in its office, Saudi engineer held)
Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan?
Abdulrahman Alfozan is a 35-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia who, until recently, worked as Engineering Lead at OpenAI.
Alfozan had been employed as an engineer by OpenAI since July 2025. He was terminated by OpenAI last month after the company discovered that he had planted a hidden recording device in one of their US offices.
“OpenAI 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 US Department of Justice said in a press release yesterday.
The device was discovered on September 30 and Alfozan was arrested by the FBI on October 9.
Education and career
According to his LinkedIn profile, Abdulrahman Alfozan attended the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he studied computer science and engineering. He graduated in 2016.
He later earned a master’s degree in data science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2025.
His LinkedIn profile shows that between 2012 and 2014, he interned at several companies like Akamai Technologies, SAP and Microsoft.
In 2017, he joined Meta as Senior Systems Engineer and worked there till 2022. HT.com has reached out to Meta to verify this claim made on Alfozan’s LinkedIn profile.
After leaving Meta in 2022, he joined Nash as founding engineer.
(Also read: Meta AI chief says Zuckerberg’s instant, long WhatsApp texts taught him ‘ruthless prioritisation’)
The following year, Abdulrahman Alfozan was named a Venture Partner at Raed Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On its website, Raed Ventures described him as a “seasoned professional with extensive experience in tech startups, entrepreneurship, and scaling technology companies.”
Alfozan joined OpenAI in July 2025 as Engineer Lead. In its press release, the US Department of Justice said he hid a recording device in a conference room to gather intel on the company’s super intelligence technology.