Judge denied Alfozan bail and criticized a Saudi consulate bond guarantee
The FBI is exploring whether to add an economic espionage charge against Abdulrahman Alfozan, the former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a company conference room, a law-enforcement official said. The inquiry centers on whether Alfozan stole OpenAI information to offer to the Saudi government, even if he was not recruited to do so, the official said.
Alfozan currently faces wiretapping allegations over a thumb-sized circuit board and microphone that he is accused of wrapping in toilet paper and inserting behind a wall-mounted television inside a conference room mostly used by OpenAI executives. He is charged with violating a federal recording statute, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, and his next court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6.
The law-enforcement official said the government’s ongoing investigation is exploring whether Alfozan committed offenses including theft of trade secrets, in addition to questions about economic espionage. The official said it was possible the probe would not lead to any additional charges. The FBI’s exploration does not necessarily mean the government would allege that Alfozan acted at the behest of the Saudi government; any charge could rest on allegations that he planned to shop what he allegedly collected to the Saudis at a later date.
William Pernik, a lawyer for Alfozan, said he had not received any information from the government on potential additional charges. “We made it very clear that Mr. Alfozan will fight these charges and allegations in court, not in the press,” he said. The Saudi embassy in Washington and OpenAI declined to comment.
Alfozan, 35, is a Saudi national and a legal permanent resident of the U.S. He studied computer science at MIT and worked at technology firms including Meta before joining OpenAI in 2025.
He was denied bail at an Oct. 19 hearing, with the judge determining him to be a serious flight risk. U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse repeatedly raised a letter from Saudi Arabia’s Los Angeles consulate saying it would cover Alfozan’s entire bail bond. “Even if I set it at $10 million?” asked the judge. “I find that problematic. Seems like a blank check. ‘We’re gonna pay whatever the court wants to make sure he gets out.’”
Silicon Valley firms working on cutting-edge technology have long warned staff that bad actors could try to steal their secrets, and the case has placed that warning in the middle of a federal investigation.
In September, Alfozan booked one-way plane tickets from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul for himself, his wife and a three-month-old son, prosecutors said. Three days before the scheduled departure in mid-October, Alfozan was arrested. His wife and son left without him shortly after the arrest, flying business class to Qatar on tickets purchased by a member of the Saudi military, prosecutors said.
Alfozan’s lawyers said in court that the military official was the wife’s brother-in-law and did not use military funds to buy the ticket. They added that Alfozan often booked one-way flights.
Prosecutors alleged that throughout 2025 and 2026, Alfozan was in frequent WhatsApp communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family who tried to recruit him for an AI initiative being launched in Saudi Arabia. According to a court filing, the royal family member told Alfozan, “Saudi needs you more then [sic] the US!” Alfozan allegedly replied, “100.” Prosecutors said Alfozan said at the time that he would not leave until his OpenAI stock had vested.
The most recent communication between them happened on Oct. 5, prosecutors said, the same day Alfozan allegedly went back to the restricted conference room to look for his recording device. Unbeknown to him, the device had been removed by OpenAI during a security sweep days earlier, and the company alerted the FBI shortly after finding it.
OpenAI is trying to assess what information Alfozan may have captured and whether this was a case of corporate espionage or state-sponsored spying, a person familiar with the investigation said. News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, has a content deal with OpenAI.
In a recently released podcast interview, Alfozan recalled attending a 2016 event in Silicon Valley where Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman met with young Saudi tech workers. Alfozan said Mohammed bin Salman told the group the better strategy was to hone skills in the U.S. before coming back. “You learn from the source and then, God willing, bring that experience and knowledge back to the homeland,” Alfozan said.
Alfozan remains detained ahead of the Nov. 6 hearing, and the law-enforcement official said the government’s review of possible trade-secret and economic espionage offenses could conclude without additional charges.