Ex-OpenAI engineer held over Saudi ties⁠.

A former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a company conference room must stay in custody while he awaits trial, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled on Monday, Wired reports². Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national, is charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications⁴.

OpenAI found the device on 30 September, plugged into the back of a television in a conference room and covered with toilet paper¹. A camera put in the room filmed Alfozan on 5 October appearing to look behind the television, and the FBI arrested him on 9 October¹. He had worked at OpenAI for around a year, and his contract was ended¹.

Prosecutors told the court he had what appears to be considerable support from the Saudi government³. They said he had been in frequent contact on WhatsApp with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family, who wrote to him in May that Saudi needed him more than the US³. They also said a Saudi military official paid for a one-way flight for his wife and son after the arrest¹.

The prosecutors argued he could be a danger to US national security, because OpenAI executives met government officials in that room around the time the device was installed³. His phone held photos of the input panels on televisions in other OpenAI rooms, including another where sensitive meetings were held³.

Magistrate judge Alex Tse said a bond backed by the Saudi government seemed like a blank cheque, and that there was a real threat that once he left, the case would be over². His lawyer said there was no evidence of spying for Saudi Arabia, and offered a bond of about $1 million⁴. OpenAI has said it found no sign that model weights, source code or customer data were taken⁴.

The cheapest attack still works

Strip away the royal messages and this is an old trick: someone with a pass walks into a meeting room and leaves a recorder behind the television. It was caught by a person who looked, and a camera put up afterwards, not by anything clever. If your board or your sales team talk about prices, deals or staff in a room anyone in the building can book, that room is worth a look.

The sources give no British angle and name no UK company. The charge is in a US court, and it has not been tried.

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