Ex-OpenAI Engineer Had Saudi Royal Support: Filing — SkimNews
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- Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who worked at OpenAI for about a year, was charged with planting an audio recorder behind a conference room TV and disguising it with toilet paper, according to a California court filing.
- Prosecutors alleged Alfozan had 'considerable support' from the Saudi government, including 'frequent communication' with a member of the Saudi royal family.
- A Saudi military official allegedly paid for a one-way business class ticket for Alfozan's wife and son from San Francisco to Doha, Qatar on October 10 — the day after his arrest.
- OpenAI discovered the device on September 30; Alfozan was filmed returning to the room on October 5 and was arrested by the FBI on October 9, three days before he was scheduled to fly to Riyadh.
- Prosecutors argued the conduct posed 'a danger to the national security of the United States' because OpenAI executives met with government officials in the same room during the period the device was believed to be installed.
- Alfozan faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 (£188,000) fine if convicted.
Why it matters: Prosecutors are elevating this from a corporate espionage case to a national security threat because government officials met in the same conference room where the device was planted — meaning a foreign power could have accessed discussions with US officials inside an AI lab at the center of the current AI policy debate. The alleged Saudi military-funded evacuation of Alfozan's family also signals an aggressive posture in protecting the suspect from prosecution.
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