An indictment released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges that Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi engineer at OpenAI, was arrested by the FBI on October 9 and fired the same day. He remains in federal custody. Alfozan joined OpenAI in July 2025, working on the product team. According to the indictment, OpenAI discovered the device during a routine inspection on September 30: it was hidden inside toilet paper and plugged into a USB port on the back of the conference room television, with encrypted content. On October 5, surveillance footage showed him entering the conference room and examining the back of the television; later that day, security personnel found a second similar device in his bag.
OpenAI stated that it analyzed the device's purpose and origin using its own models, confirming that it possessed advanced encryption and data transmission capabilities to evade surveillance. The case was subsequently transferred to the FBI, and no evidence of leaked model weights, source code, or customer data has been found. FBI Director Patel stated that the individual intended to steal sensitive conversations about the company's "super-intelligent technology," and that the FBI will protect America's super-intelligent innovation.
