Ex-OpenAI employee accused of planting device appears to have Saudi backing, court filing shows

The Hindu – International

You are logged in

Loading…

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one.

Your active subscription(s)

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials,
Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Products you’ve access to

Additional Subscription Benefits

Account Settings

Need help with your subscription?

Weather News October 19, 2026 e-Paper

The View From India
Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.

First Day First Show
News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.

Today's Cache
Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.

Science For All
The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!

Data Point
Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers

THEdge
At the cutting edge of education and careers

Health Matters
Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there

Gender Agenda
Stories from beyond the binary.

The Hindu On Books
Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.

Weather News October 19, 2026 e-Paper

Published – October 19, 2026 09:21 pm IST – WASHINGTON

A man described as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national employed as an OpenAI engineer, looks behind a television where a recording device had been placed at a conference room in OpenAI offices, in a still image from surveillance video included in a charging document after U.S. federal agents the man and charged him with installing a hidden audio recording device, in San Francisco, California, U.S., on October 5, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Handout from Department of Justice via Reuters

An ‌ex-OpenAI employee accused of planting a recording device ⁠in an executive conference room at the AI company ‌appears to have received considerable support from ‌the Saudi government, ‌a ⁠court filing showed on ⁠Monday (October 19, 2026).

U.S. prosecutors allege that the defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent communication ‌with an unnamed member of the Saudi Royal family and that a ‌member of the Saudi military paid for a one-way plane ⁠ticket for Mr. Alfozan’s wife and son to return to ‌Saudi Arabia, according to the court document.

Prosecutors made those allegations as they asked a federal judge to keep ‌Mr. Alfozan in U.S. custody to await trial, arguing he is a flight ⁠risk.

The Saudi government media ⁠office did not immediately respond to a ‌request for comment.

Published – October 19, 2026 09:21 pm IST

investigation

/

technology (general)

/

World

/

Saudi Arabia

/

USA

/

internet

Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Fonte: The Hindu – International