Technology 5 min read By Bethany Hadley
Ex-OpenAI engineer to remain in jail as judge questions Saudi bond offer
Abdulrahman Alfozan, accused of planting a recording device in an OpenAI conference room, will stay in federal custody after a judge doubted a $1 million Saudi-backed bond would guarantee his return to court.
A former OpenAI engineer accused of planting a recording device in an executive conference room will remain in federal custody after a judge questioned whether a $1 million bond backed by the Saudi government would ensure his return to court. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, appeared at a hearing in San Francisco on Monday wearing an orange jumpsuit and a white face mask, escorted by two US marshals.
Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse said the bond offer had to be weighed against the possibility that Alfozan «potentially has access to much greater wealth». «Once he leaves, there’s no getting him back, and that’s why this is a bigger case,» Tse said. Alfozan will stay in custody until a preliminary hearing on 6 November. He has been held since his arrest by the FBI on 9 October over allegations that he placed the device in a room where executives and sometimes government officials discussed sensitive information on 28 September.
He faces one count of using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He was charged by criminal complaint and has not been indicted or entered a plea. The complaint does not charge him with espionage, theft of trade secrets or acting as an agent of a foreign government, a point his defence stressed in its motion seeking release under supervision, such as an ankle monitor.
OpenAI terminated Alfozan’s employment on 9 October, although his lawyer said in court that the company never formally told him. According to his defence motion, he had been told before his arrest that he was placed on administrative leave. Tse noted that OpenAI would not have dismissed him if it had no concern about what it found. The company has said it has «no indications» that he inappropriately accessed or took model weights, source code or customer data.
Court filings ahead of the hearing revealed new details about Alfozan, including why he had a one-way flight booked to Saudi Arabia three days after his arrest. His lawyer said he is a Saudi citizen who has lived in the US for 15 years, received his green card in 2020 and joined OpenAI in 2025. The defence said he booked the flight on 13 September for himself, his wife and their three-month-old baby at a cost of $1,897.59, with a $180 change fee, and that one-way bookings were routine for him: 96 of 138 airline bookings in his email since January 2021 were one-way.
The defence said the 12 October date was chosen because it was the day his wife’s 60-day grace period ended after her US work permit expired on 13 August. Since giving birth, she had «struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety», the motion said. Alfozan had filed for paternity leave from OpenAI from 19 October to 20 December, after which he planned to return to the Bay Area and his role. His wife initially told authorities that she and the baby intended to move permanently to Saudi Arabia and that her husband would join them at some point, but in court on Monday the defence said she now plans to return to the US on a short-term B-1 visa.
As further evidence of his intent to return, the defence noted that on 26 September, two days before the device was allegedly planted, Alfozan registered to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January 2027. His lawyer, William Pernik, argued that Alfozan stayed in the country for about eight to 10 days after OpenAI confronted him. «If he really were an agent of a foreign government … why wouldn’t he just leave right away,» Pernik said.
The US filing also disclosed the results of a federal search of Alfozan’s home and phone. Investigators found «several electronic components similar» to the recording device he allegedly installed behind a television in the conference room, and a second device that OpenAI security staff found in his bag.
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