A Saudi engineer at OpenAI has been arrested and charged with allegedly planting an audio recorder inside an executive conference room used for confidential discussions about the company’s technology and strategy, federal prosecutors announced.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was arrested Friday and made his first federal court appearance Tuesday. He remains in custody pending a detention hearing. Prosecutors say he had worked at OpenAI since July 2025; the company has since fired him.

The device was discovered in late September, concealed in toilet paper and plugged into a USB port behind a television. Investigators say it had been installed roughly two days earlier. The room hosted discussions involving proprietary research, upcoming products, government engagements and commercial relationships.

Alfozan was not authorized to access the room, according to the criminal complaint. Surveillance footage allegedly placed him nearby repeatedly before the discovery. After the company installed a camera inside the room, it captured him entering and apparently checking behind the television. Security personnel also found a second recording device in an unattended bag containing his wallet and identification.

Investigators describe another trail: inquiries about executive meeting locations and chatbot prompts concerning the construction, concealment and remote operation of a recorder. The chatbot account was associated with Alfozan’s spouse and shared identifiers with his own account, prosecutors allege. Some prompts included details specific to the recovered device, including its unique network address.

OpenAI says its own AI models helped analyze the device and trace its origins to the employee before the company referred the case to the FBI. It described the recorder as using advanced encryption and a data-transfer mechanism designed to evade monitoring.

The company says it has found no indication that Alfozan improperly accessed or extracted model weights, source code or customer data. That statement does not resolve whether confidential conversations were captured or transmitted.

Federal officials framed the case as a threat to American technological security. “For us it is a matter of national security,” U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said. However, the DOJ announcement does not identify a foreign government as directing the alleged operation, and the complaint does not explain what Alfozan intended to do with any captured communications.

Alfozan faces a charge of using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, carrying a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His detention hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19. The FBI investigation continues, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.