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Ex-OpenAI Engineer Held Over Bugging Case With Saudi Ties
· Confirmed
In Short: A federal judge ordered Alfozan held without bail, citing concerns about his ties to Saudi Arabia and the risk of flight.
According to court filings, Alfozan allegedly planted a recording device in an executive conference room at OpenAI's San Francisco office to capture sensitive discussions.
Prosecutors claim Alfozan was in frequent communication with a member of the Saudi royal family and that a Saudi military official paid for a one-way plane ticket for his wife and son to return to Saudi Arabia after his arrest.
Alfozan reportedly replied '100' to a message, indicating his agreement with a plan to leave the U.S. for Saudi Arabia.
The engineer was fired from OpenAI and faces charges of secretly installing a recording device to glean company details.
Alfozan's lawyer claims the trip was planned for paternity leave and that he was pursuing U.S. citizenship.
A federal judge ordered Alfozan held without bail, citing concerns about his ties to Saudi Arabia and the risk of flight.
The court filing also noted that Alfozan's wife and son had already left the country.
Alfozan's alleged conduct could pose a danger to U.S. national security, according to prosecutors.
OpenAI stated that there were no indications of Alfozan inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data.
The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What this adds
Prosecutors allege that Alfozan's interactions with the royal family included discussions about his plans to leave OpenAI and pursue opportunities in Saudi Arabia.
The engineer's wife told investigators that she and their son planned to move permanently to Saudi Arabia and that Alfozan intended to join them.
Background
Prosecutors claim that Alfozan's interactions with the royal family included discussions about his plans to leave OpenAI and pursue opportunities in Saudi Arabia.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi engineer at OpenAI, was arrested for allegedly installing a recording device in a conference room to capture sensitive discussions.
What's confirmed
- Federal prosecutors allege that the defendant, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, was in frequent communication with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family and that a Saudi military official paid for a one-way plane ticket for Alfozan’s wife and young son to return to Saudi Arabia after his arrest, according to the court document, made public late on Sunday.
- Prosecutors argue Alfozan has resources and foreign support, noting Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Alfozan's lawyers claim the trip was planned for paternity leave and that he was pursuing U.S. citizenship.
- Prosecutors revealed in a detention filing Sunday that Saudi government officials helped arrange international travel for Alfozan's wife and his three-month-old son shortly after he was arrested.
- Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, was also fired from his job at the creator of ChatGPT, according to a government memo filed on Sunday.
- Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press Philip Marcelo, Associated Press Philip Marcelo, Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A former OpenAI engineer charged with secretly installing a recording device in a conference room to glean company details had been "mere days" away from absconding to Saudi Arabia before his arrest, federal prosecutors said in new court filings.
- The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- His wife and young son left the country the day after his arrest on a one-way ticket booked and paid for by a Saudi military official, prosecutors said in the filing.
- Report us Related Topics OpenAI Saudi Arabia A former OpenAI engineer accused of secretly planting a recording device inside the company's San Francisco headquarters maintained frequent contact with a member of the Saudi royal family and appears to have received considerable support from the Saudi government, according to a court filing reported by CNBC on Monday.
What's still developing
- He said meeting Prince Mohammed bin Salman, then deputy crown prince, during a 2016 gathering with young Saudi tech workers in Silicon Valley persuaded him to learn at a top tech company before bringing those skills back home.
- “The defendant went to significant lengths to create customized, encrypted recording devices to secretly record highly sensitive meetings involving senior OpenAI personnel and executives, high-level business counterparts, and government officials, all while communicating with individuals of significance in Saudi Arabia and pursuing opportunities in — and making plans to travel to — Saudi Arabia,” prosecutors wrote in a detention memo.
- While Alfozan was working at Facebook, he and other Saudis in Silicon Valley formed a consulting initiative that linked Saudi public- and private-sector organisations with expertise in big data, the internet of things and machine learning.
- On Monday, a court granted the US government’s request to deny release of a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a top-secret conference room to steal the frontier lab’s secrets.
- A federal judge on Monday ordered a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging an executive conference room to stay in jail, after questioning whether a $1 million bond the Saudi government offered to guarantee would bring him back if he fled.
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- The suspect, a Saudi national, allegedly planted a covert recording device: a camera-and-microphone gadget sold online for $13.99, which was reportedly discovered plugged into a TV’s USB port.
- Wakode, a second-year student at IIT Bombay's Department of Energy Science and Engineering, was found dead in his hostel room on the institute's Powai campus on Friday evening.
- A former OpenAI engineer accused of secretly planting listening devices inside the artificial intelligence giant's facilities was communicating with Saudi royalty and searching company records involving the Kingdom before his arrest, according to federal prosecutors who are investigating whether his alleged surveillance was intended to benefit a foreign government.
- The Department of Justice identified the employee as a Saudi Arabian national, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35.
- The meeting room he tried to bug regularly hosted meetings that included “highly confidential technical, commercial and strategic information,” according to an official complaint filed in court.