OpenAI employee charged after hidden recording device found in conference room

The case raises questions for staff about internal secrecy and how the company says it protected core technical data.

OpenAI says it alerted the FBI after finding a hidden recording device in an executive conference room at its San Francisco office, and federal prosecutors have now charged employee Abdulrahman Alfozan over the alleged setup. OpenAI said Alfozan was fired and arrested on October 9, roughly a week after the device was discovered, and that it has not seen signs of theft of model weights, source code, or customer data. The company said Alfozan joined in July 2025 and worked on the product team. Prosecutors said the device was plugged into a USB port behind a television, while FBI director Kash Patel said the alleged goal was to collect sensitive communications about OpenAI’s super intelligence work.