OpenAI engineer Abdulrahman Alfozan was indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday on a felony charge of intercepting oral communications, nearly three weeks after his arrest. Prosecutors say Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who joined OpenAI in 2025, hid an encrypted recorder wrapped in toilet paper behind a TV in an executive conference room at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, where executives often talked through private research, business strategy, and government deals. The indictment accuses him of capturing conversations from about September 28 to October 5. If convicted, Alfozan faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and forfeiture of the recording gear, and he remains in custody without bail.
