The US government has accused a former OpenAI engineer, Abdulrahman Alfozan, of spying for Saudi Arabia by planting surveillance devices in the company’s offices. The FBI claims Alfozan had a folder named 'Saudi Gov Docs' on his iPhone, where he allegedly stored photos of a second bug he planted in OpenAI’s offices.
Alfozan, a Saudi national and US permanent legal resident, is being held pending trial after the FBI arrested him days before he could leave for Saudi Arabia. The government alleges he had already booked a one-way ticket for him, his wife, and their baby to Riyadh, which was allegedly paid for by the Saudi government.
Following his arrest, his wife and son booked a sooner flight and left the US without him. The FBI found that a member of the Saudi military had booked and paid for a business-class ticket for the defendant’s wife and son to Doha, Qatar. The US government also claims Alfozan has at least two bank accounts in Saudi Arabia.
"Although FBI agents seized the defendant’s Saudi passport when they arrested him, there is nothing to stop the defendant, if he is released, from obtaining any necessary travel documents and fleeing the United States," the US attorney’s filing argued.
The government cited a case where former Twitter employees were charged with spying for the Saudi government, with charges still pending against one of the ex-Twitter staffers.
Alfozan allegedly started his scheme against OpenAI after being hired as an engineer in July 2025. He used an OpenAI productivity agent to research which conference rooms might be best exploited for his spying. Logs showed he also used his wife’s personal ChatGPT account to research ways to modify his covert recording devices.
Source: arstechnica
