US judge orders Saudi engineer held in OpenAI case

Published Oct 20, 2026, 07:15 AM

Updated Oct 20, 2026, 07:17 AM

SAN FRANCISCO - A former OpenAI worker accused of secretly placing a recording device in the company's San Francisco offices was ordered to remain in custody without bail on Oct 19. A federal judge decided that he might flee and fail to return to court.

US District Judge Alex Tse said there was a “significant” risk that Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, would not appear in court. He rejected his lawyers' request to release him.

Prosecutors argued against releasing Alfozan, pointing to his frequent contact with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family.

Alfozan, 35, appeared in court on Oct 19 wearing orange prison clothes. He did not speak during the one-hour hearing.

He was arrested on Oct 9. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted of intercepting private spoken conversations.

In a court document filed on Oct 18, the US Attorney's Office claimed that Alfozan, who had worked at OpenAI since 2025, was in frequent contact with a member of the Saudi royal family.

Although the complaint against Alfozan does not accuse him of spying, US Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton suggested in a statement last week that the case could affect national security.

“The government's investigation is ongoing and may result in additional serious charges,” the new court filing said. It added that the case was “a concern for the national security of the United States.”

“Whether the defendant wanted to record OpenAI meetings to enrich himself by improving his own business opportunities, or to help a foreign government, or both, his conduct is criminal,” the document added.

The unnamed member of the Saudi royal family tried several times to recruit Alfozan for an AI project in Saudi Arabia.

According to the court filing, the person wrote in one WhatsApp exchange, “Saudi (Arabia) needs you more then [sic] the US.” Alfozan replied “100,” a common way to show agreement.

Before his arrest, Alfozan bought a one-way ticket to Riyadh for Oct 12. Prosecutors said this showed that he might flee.

His lawyer, William Pernik, disagreed. He said Alfozan had an interview for US citizenship scheduled for Nov 6.

Alfozan's wife and their baby left the United States on Oct 10, the day after he was arrested.

Prosecutors said a Saudi military official paid for their tickets. They also noted that the United States and Saudi Arabia do not have an extradition treaty, which could make it difficult to return Alfozan to the United States if he left.

‘Bigger case’

Alfozan's lawyers told the court that he was unlikely to flee because he was working towards becoming a US citizen. They also said he was willing to offer assets worth US$1 million as security for his release on bail.

Prosecutors argued that returning to Saudi Arabia could bring him even greater financial benefits.

“Once he leaves, there's no getting him back, the case goes away, and that is why this is a bigger case,” Tse said in court.

The next hearing is scheduled for Nov 6.

The Justice Department said last week that security footage showed Alfozan inside a restricted conference room. He appeared to look behind a television, where a USB recording device wrapped in toilet paper had been placed.

The arrest and accusations come as countries around the world compete fiercely to lead in artificial intelligence. The Trump administration has pushed for the technology to be called “superintelligence” instead.

Saudi Arabia's state-backed AI company Humain invested US$3 billion in Elon Musk's xAI shortly before the American billionaire's space company, SpaceX, bought xAI's AI division in February.

The division, now called SpaceXAI, announced last year that it was working with Humain to build a 500-megawatt data centre in Saudi Arabia.

In 2022, former Twitter worker Ahmad Abouammo was found guilty of spying for Saudi officials who wanted to identify critics on the platform.

Another former Twitter employee, Ali Alzabarah, was also accused of helping Saudi officials. He left the United States before he could be charged. Prosecutors referred to his case in the Oct 18 filing against Alfozan. AFP