A Saudi engineer is accused of hiding a recording device inside a roll of toilet paper to secretly listen in on his company’s top executives.
Story Highlights
- Federal prosecutors charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national, with trying to use a device to intercept private conversations.
- Prosecutors say he hid the recorder in toilet paper and plugged it in behind a TV in an executive conference room at OpenAI’s San Francisco office.
- Company security found a second, similar device in a bag he left in another room, according to the complaint.
- He was arrested Friday, October 9, and made his first court appearance on Tuesday, October 13.
What Prosecutors Say He Did
Prosecutors say the goal was to capture what company leaders said behind closed doors. The room was used for highly confidential talks about research, product plans and business deals. Alfozan’s lawyer, William Pernik, said his client is presumed innocent. He warned against “jumping to conclusions at this very early stage of the case” and against judging the case by his client’s nationality. Prosecutors have not released a motive, and they have not alleged that he worked for any foreign government.
Alfozan had worked at the company as an engineer since July 2025. Prosecutors say the device was an encrypted recorder plugged into a USB port on the back of a television. They say it was put in place about two days before the company’s security team found it during a sweep on Sept. 30. That team’s job is to check rooms for hidden listening devices.
How He Was Caught
According to the complaint, security cameras showed Alfozan near the conference room several times without permission. On Oct. 5, footage showed him walking into the room and appearing to look behind the TV where the device had been hidden. That same day, security searched a bag he had left in another room. Inside were his wallet, his ID and a second recorder much like the first.
Prosecutors also say he searched for details about the company’s buildings, meeting rooms, calendars and where executives and partners would meet. A chatbot account linked to his spouse, which shared identifiers with his own account, sent questions from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30 about building, hiding and remotely accessing a recorder that runs nonstop. Prosecutors say details in those questions matched the device that was found.
The Charge and What Comes Next
Alfozan is charged with attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, which means secretly recording private spoken conversations. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He is due back in federal court on Monday, October 19, for a detention hearing, where a judge will decide whether he is held in custody until trial.
Attorney General Todd Blanche called the alleged attempt extremely serious and a threat to national security. FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI and its partners made the arrest and that the investigation is ongoing.
What the Company Says
The company said it found no sign that Alfozan accessed or took its core technology, source code or customer data. It said it called in the FBI, cut his access, placed him on leave and secured his work equipment while agents investigated. He was fired on the day of his arrest.
Why It Matters
The case is a reminder that the biggest threat to a company’s secrets can sit inside its own walls. A small device, hidden in something as ordinary as toilet paper, was placed in a room where top leaders talked freely. It was the company’s own sweep, and its cameras, that caught it.
Sources:
foxbusiness.com, justice.gov, apnews.com, france24.com, reuters.com, dw.com
