Federal prosecutors say OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan had booked one-way tickets to Saudi Arabia for himself and family members before his Oct. 9 arrest on charges of secretly installing a recording device in an executive conference room.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, the Saudi national charged with secretly installing a recording device inside an executive conference room at OpenAI, had booked one-way tickets from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia for himself, his wife, and a third family member before federal agents arrested him, according to a newly unsealed court filing.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco stated in an Oct. 8 filing that Alfozan "has the means — and will have the incentive — to flee the United States sooner if he learns about this case before he is arrested." The filing, which successfully petitioned a judge to seal a criminal complaint and arrest warrant, noted the tickets were booked for Oct. 12, routed from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul.
A judge granted the sealing request. Alfozan was arrested Oct. 9, the Department of Justice has said, and has been detained since.
Alfozan, 35, had worked at OpenAI since July 2025, according to the DOJ. The company said it terminated him this month. He is 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. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is not charged with corporate espionage or theft of trade secrets.
A detention hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19, at which his attorney could argue for his release on bond. His criminal defense lawyer, William Pernik, said in an email, "At this point, the information provided has been extremely limited, as the charging documents have just been unsealed yesterday."
Alfozan is also a venture partner at Raed Ventures, a Saudi Arabian venture capital firm whose website describes him as "a seasoned technology professional with deep experience in startups, entrepreneurship, and scaling tech companies." Raed announced Alfozan had joined the firm on Feb. 8, 2025 — two days after it announced that Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, a member of Saudi Arabia's ruling Al Saud family, had joined as a venture partner as well. Prince Khalid is also the managing director and vice chairman of his family's private office, according to his bio on Raed's site.
One of Raed's funds received an investment from Saudi Venture Capital, a subsidiary of SME Bank, which is part of Saudi Arabia's National Development Fund, in December 2024.
A former CIA official with extensive experience in the Middle East, speaking to CNBC on condition of anonymity, described Raed Ventures as "basically a state organ" of the Saudi government. The same official said that if Alfozan's alleged actions are part of a state-sponsored espionage effort, the episode is "probably the tip of the iceberg." The criminal complaint does not allege that Raed or its other partners were aware of Alfozan allegedly planting a recording device at OpenAI.
The Financial Times reported that when Saudi tech influencers visited San Francisco in September, it was Alfozan who welcomed them to OpenAI offices and gave them tours.
OpenAI said in a post on X on Tuesday that it has "no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data." The company declined to comment on Wednesday about whether it knew of Alfozan's position at the Saudi firm, and said it could not share further details about the conference room in question due to operational security concerns.
"We take protecting our technology, data and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance," the company said, adding that its security program is "designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation states."
The case is being prosecuted by the National Security, Cyber and Special Prosecutions Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. OpenAI earlier this year held discussions with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the country's sovereign wealth fund, about investing in the company — underscoring the deepening but increasingly fraught financial ties between the kingdom and Silicon Valley's leading AI firms.
Marc Sabatini is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering enterprise software, cybersecurity, and the regulatory beats that shape both. He focuses on the deal flow and policy decisions that move markets.
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