The recorder was wrapped in toilet paper. According to the Justice Department’s account of a federal complaint unsealed Tuesday, that is how an audio recorder sat behind a television in an executive conference room at an OpenAI building in San Francisco, plugged into a USB port, until staff found it on or about Sept. 30.

Prosecutors have charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national who has worked as an OpenAI engineer since July 2025, with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications. He was arrested Oct. 9 and made his first federal court appearance Oct. 13. The offense carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. These are allegations from a complaint, and no conviction has occurred. The FBI is investigating, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California is prosecuting the case with assistance from the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

OpenAI determined the recorder went in around Sept. 28 and that its contents were encrypted. CCTV footage allegedly shows Alfozan near the room on several dates, though he had no authority to enter or attend meetings there. Those meetings, the complaint says, regularly covered proprietary research, product plans, government engagements and commercial relationships.

OpenAI confirmed this news in their official newsroom Twitter handle.

Before Sept. 28, prosecutors say, he used a productivity tool to ask about building addresses, meeting room capacities and calendars, and where leadership sits. A chatbot account tied to his spouse, which shared multiple identifiers with his own, allegedly sent prompts between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 about building a continuous audio recorder, encrypting an SD card and improving live listening. On Sept. 27 and 28, the same account reportedly asked about the recorder’s custom header and unique MAC address.

On Oct. 5, the complaint says, Alfozan entered the room and appeared to look behind the television. On or about the same day, a bag left unattended in another room was opened by OpenAI security. Inside were his wallet, his ID and a second recorder similar to the first.

AI labs hold information that attracts old-fashioned spycraft. Model weights draw the headlines, but strategy conversations in a conference room may be easier to reach than a hardened server. A USB port on a TV rarely appears on a threat model slide.

The evidence, as described, also draws on digital records alongside CCTV footage and the physical recorders. Prompt histories and productivity tool queries read as a record of intent. Anyone who has typed a half-formed question into an assistant at 2 a.m. can picture how legible that record becomes once it lands in a criminal complaint.

The Justice Department release wraps the case in national-security language. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton ties it to the “global super intelligence race,” and the prosecution is described as supporting NSPM-11, a June 2026 presidential memorandum on AI in the national security enterprise, which the release says is designed to support American superiority in super intelligence technology. The charge itself is narrower and covers illegal interception. The release does not name an intended recipient or say what, if anything, the recorders captured.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice press release, White House, NSPM-11