Federal prosecutors charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, an OpenAI engineer since July 2025, with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, according to the SF Standard and The Desk.
OpenAI discovered a recording device concealed in toilet paper and plugged into a USB port behind a television in an executive conference room at its San Francisco headquarters on Sept. 30, the outlets reported. The company determined the device, which held encrypted data, had been installed around Sept. 28.
Surveillance footage showed Alfozan near the room on multiple occasions before the discovery, though he was not authorized to enter it or attend meetings there, The Desk reported. A second recording device was found in an unattended bag belonging to Alfozan on Oct. 5.
OpenAI said it used its own AI models to analyze the device and determine its origin before notifying the FBI, and found no evidence Alfozan had accessed model weights, source code or customer data, the SF Standard reported. U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian called the case "a matter of national security," according to The Desk.
Alfozan remains in federal custody and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. A detention hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19. The case shows frontier AI labs now treat physical access to executive spaces as a security problem on par with a network breach.