Abstract:
Abdurrahman Alfozan, the Saudi national accused of secretly installing a recording device in an OpenAI executive conference room, had booked a one-way flight from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia with his wife and a third family member before his arrest, federal prosecutors told a judge in a newly unsealed court filing.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco stated in a document on October 8 that Alfzan “had the means—and would have the motive—to flee the United States more quickly if he had learned of this case before his arrest.” The filing asks a judge to seal the criminal indictment and arrest warrant against him.
The document stated that the flight reservation date was October 12, flying from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul.
The judge approved the sealing request, and the Justice Department said Alfozan was arrested on October 9.
He has been detained since his arrest.
Alfzan, 35, is a venture partner at a Saudi Arabian venture capital firm that lists a prince from the Saudi ruling royal family as a partner on its website.
The venture capital firm, Raed Ventures, said on its website that Alfzan, who lives in the San Francisco area, "is a seasoned technology professional with deep experience in startups, entrepreneurship and scaling technology companies."
Alfzan's profile page on Raed's website reads: "He currently serves as OpenAI engineering lead, focusing on AI agents and data platforms."
Raed, which focuses on Middle East investments, announced Alfzan’s joining the firm on February 8, 2025, two days after Raed said Prince Khalid bin Badr Al Saud had joined as a venture partner. A venture partner is typically an advisory or project-based role rather than an investment partner or director responsible for raising capital or leading deals.
The Justice Department said Alfzan has worked at OpenAI since July 2025. The company said it fired him this month.
When Saudi tech influencers visited San Francisco in September, “it was Alfzan who welcomed them to the OpenAI office and showed them around.”
A former CIA official with extensive experience in the Middle East, who asked not to be named because of the nature of his past work, said Raed Ventures was "basically a state agency of the Saudi government." One of Raed’s funds received investment in December 2024 from the Saudi Venture Capital Corporation, a subsidiary of SME Bank, which is affiliated with the Saudi Arabian National Development Fund.
In addition to being a venture partner of Raed, Prince Khalid bin Badr Al Saud is a member of the ruling Al Saud family and serves as managing director and deputy chairman of the family's private office, according to a profile on Raed's website.
The former CIA official said that if Alfozan's alleged installation of eavesdropping equipment at OpenAI was part of a government-backed espionage campaign, it showed that "in the midst of the AI and technology boom, even the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has assessed that the risks of economic espionage against close allies are worth taking."
The former official also said the incident "may be just the tip of the iceberg."
The criminal indictment against Alfzan does not allege that Raed or his other partners knew that Alfzan allegedly installed recording equipment at OpenAI.
The case was prosecuted by the National Security, Cyber and Special Prosecutions Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, according to the Department of Justice.
Alfozan was charged in U.S. District Court in San Francisco with one count of using or attempting to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications.
He is currently in custody awaiting a detention hearing on October 19, when his lawyer may seek bail. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said.
Alfzan has not been accused of corporate espionage or stealing trade secrets.
OpenAI discussed investing in the artificial intelligence company with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, earlier this year.
Alfozan's criminal defense attorney William Pernick said: "At this time, the information provided is extremely limited because the charging documents were just unsealed yesterday."
OpenAI declined to comment on Wednesday on whether the company was aware of Alfzan's position at the Saudi company. The company said it was unable to share further details about the conference room involved due to operational security concerns.
"Currently, we have no indication that this individual improperly accessed or stole model weights, source code, or customer data," the company posted on X on Tuesday.
“We take protecting our technology, data and people seriously and view it as a national priority,” the company said. "Our security programs are designed to defend against a broad range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation-states, and this case is an example of how AI can help combat these complex security threats."
In a recent interview about his career, Alfozan noted that in July 2016, he and other Saudi nationals working at various Silicon Valley technology companies met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s current de facto ruler. The crown prince was visiting Silicon Valley as part of his U.S. tour to promote his Vision 2030 economic diversification plan.
"One of the issues we discussed was whether we should move back (to Saudi Arabia) now and bring our technical skills back to improve the economy...or should we work for a few more years to gain more experience before going back," Alfzan said in the interview.
Alfozan said bin Salman replied that "the country is going through major developments and there is no talent to train the next generation who will continue these development plans".
This group of young workers "decided it would be best to continue learning and developing our skills and then bring that knowledge back (to Saudi Arabia) to improve the tech industry," Alfzan added.
Throughout the podcast, Alfzan discusses in detail his trajectory from high school programming in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to his professional career in the United States. At one point in the interview, he described himself as an "introvert" but still pushes himself to help other young professionals succeed in Silicon Valley.
A few days after the podcast was released, on September 30, a federal criminal complaint accused OpenAI employees of discovering "a clandestine audio recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a conference room television."
According to the indictment, the device featured a detachable camera sensor, digital microphone and microSD storage and was hidden in toilet paper.
The indictment alleges that Alfozan did not have access to the conference room, which was frequently used to "discuss highly confidential technical, business and strategic information."
The conference room "can only be booked by executives and executive assistants" and is typically used for "internal leadership meetings and technology and product meetings, as well as external briefings with government officials and business partners," according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, OpenAI’s closed-circuit television footage showed Alfzan near the conference room at different times on multiple days in September.
The document also says that in August and September, Alfzan used an AI productivity tool to query OpenAI's building addresses, conference rooms, conference room capacity and calendars, as well as "external partner meetings."
The indictment alleges that a chatbot associated with Alfozan’s spouse—who allegedly shared several identifying characteristics with his or her own account—submitted detailed tips on building, customizing, installing, and remotely accessing the recording device. Alfzan's spouse is not named in the indictment and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
After discovering a hidden recording device on a conference room television, OpenAI installed a camera in the room, according to the indictment.
The indictment states that Alfzan was seen by the camera entering the conference room at approximately 1:20 pm on October 5 "and checking behind the television, where recording device 1 was inserted."
On the same day, Alfzan left an unattended bag in OpenAI’s printer room, the indictment said.
Inside the bag, OpenAI security personnel found his wallet, ID card and "another recording device" made by the same Chinese manufacturer Seeed that made the device found on the conference room television, the indictment said.
The second recording device, like the first, "had a recording microcontroller" and was "customized to obfuscate any content stored on the device, such as audio communications that might be intercepted," the indictment said.
Alfzan reported to OpenAI that he had lost the bag, and the bag was returned to him, but the second recording device was not, according to the indictment. He did not ask about the device, although he did ask about certain other items he said were missing, the complaint states.
“Any attempt to illegally obtain protected information from American superintelligence and technology companies threatens American innovation and the national security interests that these advances support.” Scott Scherbull, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office, said in a statement on Alfzan’s arrest on Tuesday. He used the Trump administration’s preferred term for artificial intelligence.
Before joining OpenAI, Alfzan had long-term working experience in the Bay Area.
On his LinkedIn page, Alfzan describes himself as "an experienced engineering leader with 11 years of experience building scalable and reliable software systems in the data and AI/ML space."
"Proven track record of leading engineering teams, delivering complex projects and enterprise products. With strong project management skills and a passion for fostering a culture of collaboration and engineering excellence," his profile reads.
Prior to joining OpenAI, Alfzan was a founding engineer at Nash, an AI company focused on logistics, according to his LinkedIn page.
According to the LinkedIn page, before Nash, he served as a senior systems engineer at Facebook parent company Meta from 2017 to 2022. His profile states that previous internships include one at Microsoft in 2014.
Alfzan studied computer science and engineering at MIT and data science at the University of California, Berkeley, according to his LinkedIn page.
The MIT media relations office said he attended the school from January 2011 to January 2014 and February 2016 to May 2016 but did not receive a degree.
A spokesperson for the University of California, Berkeley, said that Alfzan studied at the school from January 2023 to May 2025 and received a master's degree.
In 2016, he said on LinkedIn, he was a research intern at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.
According to his profile, in 2020, he won the second prize of US$50,000 in the hackathon event of the Saudi COVID-19 Challenge.
Alfozan's home on a hill in Millbrae, California, overlooks the San Francisco Bay and has views of the Diablo Mountains. Popular with tech workers, this small San Mateo County suburb is about 30 minutes south of San Francisco and 25 minutes from Stanford University.
Alfzan was "born in the ultra-conservative central region of Qassim" but "grew up in Dammam, the kingdom's oil-rich eastern province."
In a documentary about Alfzan that aired on Saudi television, his father said that as a young student in a government-supported program to develop math, physics and engineering skills for gifted children, Alfzan "would read an encyclopedia from cover to cover."
"We are waiting to see what evidence the government has against our client and look forward to presenting all appropriate defenses in court," said Alfzan's attorney, Pernick.
"As a statement, what I can tell you is that, like countless Americans, Mr. Alfozan came to this country many years ago as a young man with a dream," the lawyer said. "He spent years studying, working, and contributing to the world-leading American technology industry, an industry built in large part by immigrants like him."
"These charges appear completely out of character, and we will relentlessly investigate all evidence presented by the government in this case to understand what actually happened, who was responsible, and any possible cause," Pernick said.
The lawyer noted that Alfzan was "charged with violating federal recording statutes, not with stealing trade secrets or working as a foreign agent."
"There is no evidence shared with us at this time that would suggest otherwise," Pernick said. "Where a person was born is not evidence of anything, and nationality is - and always should be - a protected identity under our legal system."
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