US prosecutors say Abdulrahman Alfozan was in frequent contact with a Saudi royal and that a Saudi military official paid for his family’s flight home after his arrest. They have not alleged that the Saudi government ordered the surveillance.
Federal prosecutors say a former OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room appears to have received considerable support from the Saudi government. A court filing, made public late on Sunday, says Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent contact with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family. It also says a Saudi military official paid for a one-way plane ticket for his wife and young son to return to Saudi Arabia after his arrest. He is due to appear in federal court in San Francisco on Monday for a detention hearing.
What prosecutors allege
Prosecutors made the claims in a detention memo asking a judge to keep Mr Alfozan in custody until trial, arguing that he is a flight risk. He is a Saudi national and a lawful permanent resident of the US.
“The defendant went to significant lengths to create customized, encrypted recording devices to secretly record highly sensitive meetings involving senior OpenAI personnel and executives, high-level business counterparts, and government officials, all while communicating with individuals of significance in Saudi Arabia and pursuing opportunities in — and making plans to travel to — Saudi Arabia,” they wrote.
According to the criminal complaint, Mr Alfozan plugged a recording device into the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of OpenAI’s San Francisco buildings. The memo says meetings involving government officials took place in the room around the time it was installed. Prosecutors say the investigation remains active and further charges could follow.
A member of the Saudi royal family sought to recruit him for an AI-focused role in Saudi Arabia, the prosecutors say. In one message, the royal wrote: “Saudi needs you more then [sic] the US!” Mr Alfozan replied: “100.”
What the filings do not establish
The filings do not show that the Saudi government told him to record OpenAI meetings, that Saudi intelligence directed any operation, or that recordings reached Saudi officials. They also do not show that a royal knew of the devices or that the Saudi state paid for them. Contact with Saudi officials and help with family travel are not proof of state-directed espionage.
Mr Alfozan has been charged with using an electronic device to intercept oral communications, not with espionage or theft of trade secrets. The Department of Justice says the offence carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, with up to three years of supervised release. The allegations are not findings made after a trial.
The evidence set out in the complaint
OpenAI has said it found the device on 30 September and referred the matter to the FBI. According to the research notes, citing the Justice Department, the allegations include:
- Timeline: The device was allegedly installed on 28 September. On 5 October, security footage allegedly showed Mr Alfozan returning to the conference room and checking behind the television. The FBI arrested him on 9 October, and the complaint was announced on 13 October.
- A second device: OpenAI security staff allegedly found another recording device on about 5 October, inside a bag Mr Alfozan had left unattended in a different room. It resembled the first, and the bag held a wallet and identification.
- Research queries: A ChatGPT account linked to his wife was allegedly used between 24 and 30 September to ask about building and customising recording equipment, encrypting recordings, connecting devices to wireless networks and concealing them. Some prompts reportedly referred to hardware identifiers on the recovered device.
- Meeting enquiries: He allegedly looked up conference room locations and capacities, building addresses and executives’ meeting calendars. The room in question was reportedly one he was not authorised to enter.
The research notes cite a report by The National that the hardware appeared to be a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense development board, which retails for about $14. A cybersecurity specialist said such compact commercial boards can be hard to detect when hidden. OpenAI has said it found no evidence that model weights, source code or customer data were taken. It says it used one of its own AI models to help understand the recovered device, ended Mr Alfozan’s employment and referred the case to the FBI.
The flight-risk argument
Prosecutors say Mr Alfozan was due to fly to Riyadh for a planned two-month parental leave. His wife told investigators that she and their son planned to move permanently to Saudi Arabia and that he eventually intended to join them, according to the prosecutors. They cite at least two Saudi bank accounts and about a decade of income from the San Francisco tech sector. They also point to his Saudi connections and the lack of a US-Saudi extradition treaty.
His lawyer, William Pernik, says a planned trip to Saudi Arabia this month was booked before he was under investigation and was for “family and immigration reasons”, according to a court filing. The research notes say the defence puts the booking more than two weeks before the alleged installation. Prosecutors say the one-way ticket for his wife and son was bought after his arrest, with help from a Saudi military official. The court has not resolved the competing accounts.
Mr Pernik has asked for Mr Alfozan’s release subject to conditions including location monitoring and surrender of his passport. Business Insider reports the defence also suggested a bond backed by the Saudi consulate. He says Mr Alfozan has spent 15 years in the US and applied to become a citizen. According to the research notes, citing court filings reported by the Associated Press, he has held permanent residency since 2020 and has a citizenship interview scheduled for November. His lawyers say he intended to return to the Bay Area after parental leave.
Alfozan’s Saudi ties
In an Arabic-language interview on the Identity Capital podcast last month, Mr Alfozan said he visits Saudi Arabia three or four times a year, follows developments there and advises or mentors Saudi startups. He said meeting Prince Mohammed bin Salman, then deputy crown prince, at a 2016 gathering with young Saudi tech workers in Silicon Valley persuaded him to learn at a top tech company before taking those skills home. While at Facebook, he and other Saudis in Silicon Valley set up a consulting initiative linking Saudi public- and private-sector bodies with expertise in big data, the internet of things and machine learning.
The Saudi government media office and Mr Pernik did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The case has highlighted security challenges around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete for an edge in the technology.
