OpenAI bugging suspect allegedly booked one-way trip to Saudi Arabia

The Saudi national accused of bugging OpenAI’s headquarters booked a one-way flight to Saudi Arabia before his arrest, US prosecutors have alleged.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a former OpenAI engineer, had been scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia with his wife and another family member on October 12, prosecutors said in a court filing unsealed on Wednesday.

The FBI arrested Alfozan, who worked at OpenAI for about 15 months until his termination last week, on October 9, after OpenAI personnel reported the discovery of a hidden listening device in a conference room at the company’s San Francisco headquarters.

Alfozan, 35, has been charged with “using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications”.

The offence carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Prosecutors disclosed the alleged flight booking to a judge on October 8 in a motion seeking to seal the criminal complaint against Alfozan, arguing he had the “means – and will have an incentive – to flee” the United States.

William Pernik, Alfozan’s lawyer, said he and his client planned to contest the criminal allegations and his client’s ongoing detention in court.

“We trust that the American justice system will treat our client fairly, despite the narrative painted in the media at this time,” Pernik told Al Jazeera.

“Our client is a well regarded professional with long standing ties to the community,” Pernik added.

“He is presumed innocent and is entitled to fair treatment and due process of law. The emphasis on his national origin and therefore suggestions of lack of trustworthiness or flight risk harken back to dark chapters of our nation’s history that we intend to fight fully.”

Alfozan’s arrest has shone a spotlight on concerns that frontier tech firms are a target for spying and industrial espionage amid the global race to gain an upper hand in AI.

Before joining OpenAI in July last year, Alfozan worked as a systems engineer at Meta and interned at Microsoft, according to a LinkedIn profile in his name.

Alfozan is also listed as a venture partner at Raed Ventures, a Riyadh-based venture capital firm whose other partners include Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family.

In a statement announcing Alfozan’s appointment in February 2025, Raed Ventures described the engineer as “a seasoned professional with extensive experience in tech startups” and said his role would involve “identifying promising investment opportunities and supporting startups on their journey toward growth and success”.