A federal grand jury in the Northern District of California on Tuesday, Oct. 27, indicted Abdulrahman Alfozan, a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco office. SFGATE reports he is charged with one count of interception of oral communications. If convicted, he would have to forfeit the audiovisual recording devices he had while working at OpenAI. We covered his arrest earlier this month.
Alfozan, 35, is a Saudi national who lives in Millbrae. OpenAI fired him on Oct. 9, the day the FBI arrested him, SFGATE reported. His attorney didn't respond to SFGATE's request for comment.
What prosecutors allege
According to the Justice Department, OpenAI staff found a recording device concealed in toilet paper in a USB port on the back of a TV in an executive conference room around Sept. 30. OpenAI determined it had been installed around Sept. 28 and that its contents were encrypted. Alfozan had no authority to attend meetings in that room, which often involved highly confidential technical, commercial and strategic information.
- Before the device was installed, Alfozan allegedly used a productivity tool to ask about building addresses, meeting rooms, calendars and "leadership and exec" locations.
- A chatbot account linked to his spouse allegedly asked how to "build a continuous audio recorder" and "encrypt the SD card."
- On Oct. 5, security footage allegedly showed him looking behind the same TV. That day, security staff found a second, similar device in a bag he had left unattended.
Penalty and custody
The charge carries a maximum of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, followed by 3 years of supervised release, according to the DOJ. SFGATE reports Alfozan is being held without bail. A judge called him a "significant" flight risk and denied a request from the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles, which had offered to pay his bail in full.