Former OpenAI Worker Accused of Bugging Discussed Jobs With Saudi Royal

SAN FRANCISCO—Before he was arrested, Abdulrahman Alfozan, the Saudi national accused of bugging a restricted OpenAI conference room, had allegedly been in touch with a member of the Saudi royal family about job opportunities in the kingdom, federal prosecutors said.

The new allegation came in a filing where prosecutors argued that Aflozan, a 35-year-old former OpenAI employee, should be kept in custody because he is a flight risk. Alfozan is due to appear in federal court on Monday.

Alfozan’s lawyer said he planned to address the new filing in court.

Representatives from the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C., didn’t immediately have a comment.

Alfozan is accused of wrapping a thumb-sized circuit board and microphone in toilet paper and inserting the device behind a wall-mounted TV inside the conference room around Sept. 28, shortly before he was set to leave the country. OpenAI said he was scheduled for two months of paternity leave beginning sometime in October, the filing said.

He had booked one-way plane tickets from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul for himself, his wife and their three-month old son on Oct. 12, prosecutors allege. Three days before he was scheduled to leave in October, he was arrested and charged with trying to record conversations within OpenAI’s offices.

Alfozan’s wife and son left without him shortly after his arrest, prosecutors said. She told Federal Bureau of Investigation agents the day she left that her visa was expiring and that she and her son were permanently moving back to Saudi Arabia. She allegedly told prosecutors that Alfozan had planned to come back to the U.S. but eventually move permanently as well.

In the days around the time when Alfozan allegedly inserted the device, OpenAI executives had met with government officials in the conference room, prosecutors said. “Defendant’s conduct could pose a danger to national security in the United States,” they wrote.

Alfozan had been an employee on OpenAI’s product team since July 2025. His base salary when he joined OpenAI was $325,000 with a new hire equity grant of $2.2 million in profit-participation units, the filing said. His base was later increased to $385,000.

Throughout 2025 and 2026, Alfozan was in frequent WhatsApp communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family, prosecutors said, including as recently as October of this year.

The royal family member told Alfozan that an artificial-intelligence initiative was being launched in Saudi Arabia and he wanted Alfozan to join it, the filing alleges.

“Saudi needs you more then [sic] the US!” the Saudi royal family member allegedly told Alfozan. He replied, “100.” The Saudi royal repeatedly tried to recruit Alfozan, prosecutors alleged, but at the time he said he wouldn’t leave until his stock vested. It is unclear whether Alfozan’s equity had vested before he was fired on the day of his arrest.