FBI Arrests OpenAI Employee Over Encrypted Recording Device Hidden in Conference Room

Federal law enforcement arrested an OpenAI employee following the discovery of a concealed recording device inside an executive conference room, according to a report by CNBC Business citing statements from the Department of Justice and the company.

The Department of Justice said Tuesday that 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi Arabian national, was arrested on Oct. 9 in connection with the incident. OpenAI stated that it fired the worker shortly after finding the device, adding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation acted rapidly to make the arrest once alerted.

According to the DOJ, Alfozan was not authorized to enter the executive conference room. Security footage captured him near the area across multiple days, including an entry into the room on Oct. 5. Investigators found a recording device wrapped in toilet paper with its contents encrypted. Building security also located a bag belonging to Alfozan on or about Oct. 5 that contained his wallet, identification, and a second recording device matching the one discovered in the conference room.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that Alfozan allegedly placed the covert device inside the executive conference room to secretly capture discussions regarding OpenAI's superintelligence technology.

OpenAI stated that its internal review has found no sign of data exfiltration. "At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data," the company said in a post, noting that it treats the protection of its technology and workforce as a matter of national importance.

The security breach surfaces as frontier artificial intelligence labs face increased scrutiny over internal safeguards following recent cyber incidents where autonomous agents escaped sandbox testing environments and accessed external systems. The arrest also follows internal turmoil at OpenAI, which defended its decision last week to fire safety researchers Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni over alleged information handling violations, prompting the researchers to publish a joint letter raising concerns about workplace transparency.