Former OpenAI employee arrested for alleged spying denied release

Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a former OpenAI employee, was arrested on suspicion of secretly placing a recording device in a conference room used by company leaders. A judge in San Francisco has refused to release him from federal custody.

The federal government arrested Alfozan, a Saudi Arabian national, on October 9. He was charged with using or trying to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to secretly record conversations. He is accused of placing an audio recording device inside a TV in an executive conference room. OpenAI leaders learned that the device had been found on September 30.

On October 19, Alfozan and his lawyers appeared at a federal courthouse in San Francisco. They asked Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse to let Alfozan remain out of custody while his case moved through the courts.

As part of their request, his lawyers said Alfozan would follow rules set by Pretrial Services, give his passport to the federal government, and stay at his family's home in Millbrae under house arrest. A GPS ankle monitor would track his location. He would also be banned from international travel and from traveling outside the Northern District of California without the court's permission. His lawyer also submitted a letter from the Saudi Arabian consulate saying it would pay the required bond.

However, federal prosecutors opposed the request. They argued that Alfozan should remain in custody, pointing to messages he exchanged with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family and airline tickets he had booked for himself and his family to travel to Saudi Arabia.

During 2025 and 2026, Alfozan exchanged messages with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family. According to court documents, this person tried to recruit him to join and help develop an artificial intelligence project being started in Saudi Arabia.

In a message from 2026, the unnamed person told Alfozan, "Saudi needs you more then [sic] the US." Alfozan agreed with this idea but told the person he would not leave OpenAI until his company stock had fully vested. Federal officials valued that stock at about $2 million, according to court records.

Alfozan and his family were also scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia on October 12. He allegedly planned to make the trip during a two-month parental leave from OpenAI.

Alfozan was arrested on October 9 in connection with the alleged placement of a secret recording device at OpenAI's office. As a result, he missed the October 12 flight.

In their request to have him released, Alfozan's lawyers argued that the judge should not treat him as someone likely to flee. Prosecutors pointed to the airline tickets as a reason to keep him in custody. His lawyer said the tickets had been bought in September because the family planned to return to Saudi Arabia "for family and immigration reasons."

"Nationality is not evidence of flight," court documents stated.

Alfozan's lawyers also said that he was in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. Court documents showed that he had a naturalization interview scheduled in San Francisco for November 6, 2026.

His lawyers also argued that he had enough time to leave the country before his arrest because he knew OpenAI had discovered the recording devices more than a week before the FBI took him into custody.

"If his intention was to flee, he would have done so at that time and booked it before the device at the center of the complaint was allegedly placed," court documents stated.

In their response, federal prosecutors said the Saudi government allegedly bought one-way tickets for Alfozan's wife and son soon after his arrest was announced.

Court documents show that the Saudi government first booked tickets for them to return to Saudi Arabia on October 11, even though they could have waited for their October 12 flight. The booking was later canceled after a member of the Saudi military arranged an earlier flight that departed on October 10.

According to court documents, Alfozan's wife and son left the United States for Doha, Qatar, on October 10, about 36 hours after his arrest. The Saudi military official had bought and arranged their tickets.

Shortly after the FBI arrested Alfozan, agents questioned his wife. She said that she and her son planned to move permanently back to Saudi Arabia because her F1 student visa, a temporary visa for international students, had recently expired. She also told the FBI that Alfozan would eventually move back to Saudi Arabia, but she did not say when he planned to go.

During its investigation, the FBI found that Alfozan had at least two bank accounts in Saudi Arabia. Prosecutors said this suggested he had substantial support from a foreign government that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. They also pointed to the significant amount of money he had earned while working in the San Francisco Bay Area's technology industry over the previous 10 years.

"His wife and son are now in Saudi Arabia and have no plans to return. He has the resources to flee. He has the connections needed not only to flee, but to build a new life in Saudi Arabia. The Court should order the defendant detained pending trial," the federal prosecutor's argument to the judge stated.

Judge Tse ultimately refused to release Alfozan and ordered him held in custody without bond.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for USA Today covering Northern California. Contact him at [email protected], follow him on X at 1NoePadilla or on Bluesky at @noepadilla.bsky.social. Sign up for the TODAY Californian newsletter or follow us on Facebook at TODAY Californian.

This article first appeared in USA TODAY: Former OpenAI employee arrested for alleged spying denied release