Prosecutors seek to detain former OpenAI engineer accused of planting recording device, citing alleged Saudi ties

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to keep a former OpenAI engineer jailed until trial. They accuse him of hiding a listening device in a company meeting room and argue that his connections to Saudi Arabia make him likely to flee, according to court filings described by PBS NewsHour and BBC News.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi citizen, faces a charge of using or trying to use a device to intercept spoken conversations. PBS NewsHour said a conviction could bring five years in prison. BBC News put the maximum penalty at five years plus a $250,000 fine. A hearing on detention was scheduled for Monday in San Francisco federal court.

According to prosecutors, as reported by PBS NewsHour, Alfozan concealed the audio recorder by wrapping it and connected it to the back of a TV in an executive meeting space he had no permission to enter. OpenAI discovered the device on Sept. 30. BBC News said a camera was afterward set up in the room, and on Oct. 5 it filmed Alfozan coming in and seeming to look behind the TV. Both outlets said the FBI took him into custody on Oct. 9 and that OpenAI cut ties with him.

The filings describe the room as a place where OpenAI leaders met with other executives and government officials. BBC News said prosecutors warned the alleged conduct could threaten national security. OpenAI called the recorder advanced and designed to escape notice, PBS NewsHour reported, and said it had evidence he intended to plant others.

PBS NewsHour reported that prosecutors say Alfozan often communicated with a Saudi royal family member who kept trying to hire him for an AI project in the kingdom. Prosecutors have not stated what purpose any recordings may have served.

The arrest came three days ahead of a planned one-way trip to Saudi Arabia for Alfozan, his wife and their son, both outlets said. A day after he was detained, his wife and child departed on a one-way ticket that prosecutors say a Saudi military officer arranged and funded. BBC News reported they flew business class to Doha, Qatar. PBS NewsHour noted prosecutors stressed that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have no extradition treaty.

Defense attorneys reject the flight-risk argument, according to PBS NewsHour. They say the family's original tickets were purchased over two weeks before the device was allegedly placed, for a paternity leave of about two months following the birth of their son, a U.S. citizen.

His lawyers say Alfozan has held a green card since 2020, has spent 15 years in the country, studied at MIT and UC Berkeley, and was due for a citizenship interview next month. They propose home confinement with GPS tracking and surrender of his passport.

BBC News said the Saudi government had not immediately answered its request for comment.

Compiled by True News from reporting by PBS NewsHour and BBC News. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/259