A Saudi national employed by artificial intelligence firm OpenAI was arrested and federally charged after allegedly planting a listening device in one of the company’s conference rooms at its San Francisco headquarters, US authorities said on Tuesday.

What happened: The US Department of Justice identified the Saudi employee as 35-year-old engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan who had worked at the company since July 2025.

According to a statement from the Department of Justice, Alfozan was arrested on Oct. 9 after OpenAI’s security team discovered an audio recording device late last month. The device had been installed on the back of a television in the company's executive conference room, where meetings were held to discuss highly confidential technical, commercial and strategic information. The device was allegedly concealed inside a USB device wrapped in toilet paper.

CCTV footage showed Alfozan near the conference room on multiple occasions, despite not being authorized to enter it. Security personnel later found a second recording device in an unattended bag containing Alfozan’s ID and wallet.