OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi citizen, was arrested on October 9 for allegedly installing a covert recording device in a company conference room. Federal authorities charge him with violating the federal Wiretap Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Court documents reveal that between September 24 and September 30, Alfozan used his wife's ChatGPT account to research how to build and operate a recording device. Queries included instructions on continuous recording, real-time monitoring, SD card encryption, and hardware MAC address information.
Alfozan allegedly hid a circuit board with a microphone and microSD slot behind a television in an executive conference room. OpenAI discovered the device on September 30 during a routine check. The company used its own AI technology to identify the suspect, noting that the device's storage card files could not be recovered or decrypted.
Prior to the installation, Alfozan used an internal OpenAI productivity agent to identify conference rooms hosting important meetings. He targeted a room used for high-level strategic discussions and government briefings, despite lacking authorization to access it. Security footage placed him near the room on multiple occasions in September.
On October 5, security cameras captured Alfozan checking the television area. That same day, he left a bag in a print room containing another recording board. After security removed the board, Alfozan reported the bag as stolen, claiming items like cash and electronics were missing, but he did not mention the recording equipment.
