Arrested OpenAI Engineer Booked a One-Way Ticket to Saudi Arabia

The OpenAI employee who was arrested and charged with allegedly using a hidden recording device in one of the ChatGPT maker’s San Francisco offices had a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia booked for Oct. 12, according to a court filing.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi Arabian national, was arrested on Oct. 9, more than a week after staffers at OpenAI discovered an audio recording device planted behind a television in an executive conference room, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. Alfozan, who is alleged to have placed the device, is currently in federal custody and appeared in court in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The incident is poised to heighten concerns about the security at top tech companies at a moment when nations are competing aggressively to develop more powerful AI systems.

In a motion that was filed on Oct. 8, attorneys for the United States asked a judge to seal the criminal complaint, arrest warrant and other filings related to its case against Alfozan.

Attorneys for the government wrote in the motion that disclosing the documents related to the case against Alfozan “might jeopardize the defendant’s arrest.”

Alfozan, his wife and another family member had booked one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia, via Istanbul, from San Francisco, according to the filing.

“The defendant has the means — and will have an incentive — to flee the United States sooner if he learns about this case before he is arrested,” the government attorneys wrote.

William Pernik, an attorney for Alfozan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In response to Alfozan’s arrest Tuesday, Pernik said they “look forward to presenting all appropriate defenses in court.”

The complaint against Alfozan was sealed, and it was unsealed on Tuesday.

Alfozan had started at OpenAI in July 2025 and worked on its product team; he was fired the same day as his arrest, according to the company.

OpenAI said one of its security teams discovered the device on Sept. 30 during a sweep of a company conference room. According to details and images released by the Justice Department, the device was plugged into a USB port in the back of a TV in the room and covered with toilet paper to disguise it. One image released shows a person whom the Justice Department identified as Alfozan peering behind the TV.

Alfozan did not have approval to access the conference room, which typically hosted meetings involving “highly confidential technical, commercial, and strategic information,” according to the complaint, which references an unnamed AI company with offices in San Francisco.

He’s next scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse in federal court in the Northern District of California in San Francisco on Oct. 19.