An OpenAI employee arrested on charges of allegedly planting a hidden recording device in one of the ChatGPT maker’s San Francisco offices had reportedly booked a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia for October 12.
Alfozan is scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Alex G. Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi Arabian national, was arrested on October 9, more than a week after OpenAI employees discovered an audio recording device hidden behind a television in an executive conference room, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday, according to a Bloomberg report. Alfozan joined OpenAI in July 2025 and worked on its product team. Tse in federal court in the Northern District of California in San Francisco on October 19.
“The defendant has the means — and will have an incentive — to flee the United States sooner if he learns about this case before he is arrested,” the government attorneys wrote in the October 8 motion, the report added. The company said he was fired on the same day he was arrested. William Pernik, Alfozan’s defence lawyer, said the defence team would challenge the allegations in court. “We look forward to presenting all appropriate defenses in court,” Pernik said.
Alfozan, who is accused of placing the device, remains in federal custody and appeared in court in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Government attorneys cited the travel arrangements in a motion seeking to seal the criminal complaint, arrest warrant and other documents related to the case.
Cited in the report, Alfozan, his wife and another family member had booked one-way tickets from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul, according to a court filing.
