What happened
Federal authorities have arrested former OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, charging him with attempting to secretly record confidential discussions inside an executive conference room at OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters, according to a U.S. Department of Justice criminal complaint.
According to the FBI and DOJ, OpenAI's technical surveillance countermeasures team discovered a thumb-sized encrypted audio recording device concealed inside toilet paper and plugged into the USB port on the back of a television during a security sweep on September 30, 2026. The room was regularly used for executive meetings on proprietary research, product strategy and superintelligence development.
OpenAI reported that it used its own internal AI tools and CCTV footage to trace the device before referring the matter to federal investigators. Authorities arrested Alfozan on October 9 and recovered a second recording device among his belongings. OpenAI said its investigation found no indication that model weights, source code or customer data were exfiltrated.
Every statement is attributed to the cited reporting. Visuals marked “file photo” or “illustrative” do not depict the events described unless stated.