Saudi OpenAI engineer bugged top secret meetings with toilet paper trickery, feds say after bombshell arrest
A Saudi engineer at artificial intelligence giant OpenAI was arrested and charged with attempting to bug confidential meetings by planting secret recording devices in executive conference rooms, federal prosecutors said.Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, who is from Saudi Arabia, is in federal custody after his arrest Friday.
OpenAI discovered a “surreptitious audio recording device” stuffed into a USB port on the back of a TV in a conference room — wrapped in toilet paper in an attempt to conceal the device, according to the complaint.A photo in the court document show an oddly placed object on the back of a TV.
Another photo shows the alleged device with the branding of Seeed Studio, a company that appears to offer AI recording products.Meetings in that conference room apparently involved high-level discussions of the company’s confidential plans, such as proprietary research, OpenAI’s technical capabilities, its government relationships and more.Footage showed Alfozan appearing near the conference room multiple times, even though he had no authority to access the room or participate in those meetings, the complaint said.He has worked for the San Francisco-based AI company since July 2025, the Department of Justice said.“Any attempt to illicitly obtain protected information from U.S.super intelligence and technology companies threatens both American innovation and the national security interests those advancements support,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott Schelble of the FBI San Francisco Field Office.Alfozan also used chatbots to plot the alleged recording efforts, asking about OpenAI’s building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars, authorities said.
He even requested information about the locations of “leadership and exec,” per the complaint.Another chatbot account associated with his wife allegedly included queries on ways to install and hide audio recording devices.On Oct.5, a photo allegedly captures Alfozan enteri...