Ex-OpenAI engineer accused of espionage had Saudi backing, prosecutors say

A former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging an executive conference room appears to have had substantial support from the Saudi government, according to US federal prosecutors. The engineer, Abdulrahman Alfozan, is a 35-year-old Saudi national. Prosecutors say he planted a covert audio recording device inside an executive meeting room at an OpenAI office in San Francisco. The device was reportedly hidden in toilet paper and plugged into a television’s USB port. What prosecutors allege According to the court filings, the recording device was installed around September 28, 2026. OpenAI discovered it two days later, on September 30. Prosecutors say Alfozan was then caught on camera on October 5 checking on the spot where the device had been placed. The FBI arrested him on October 9, 2026. The filings also describe communications between Alfozan and an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family. Those exchanges reportedly continued until early October 2026. Messages discussed Alfozan’s potential recruitment for a Saudi AI initiative, prosecutors say. The tone, as described in the filings, suggested Saudi Arabia was in a hurry to secure his expertise. One day after his arrest, on October ...