Abdulrahman Alfozan, the OpenAI engineer charged with planting a hidden audio recorder in a conference room reserved for executives, had booked one-way flights to Saudi Arabia for himself and two family members for October 12, three days after his arrest, according to a newly unsealed prosecution filing. CNBC also found that Alfozan is a venture partner at Raed Ventures, a Saudi VC firm that counts a member of the royal family among its partners and has taken money from a state development fund. He’s charged only with illegally intercepting conversations, not espionage or trade secret theft, and the complaint doesn’t accuse Raed of knowing about the device. OpenAI, which fired him, says it has found no sign he accessed its model weights, code, or customer information.
