Arrest of an OpenAI engineer: Suspected of secretly recording executive meetings, up to 5 years in prison一名 OpenAI 工程师被捕：涉嫌秘密录制高管会议，最高面临 5 年监禁

IT House, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday (Oct. 13) that a Saudi engineer at OpenAI was arrested and charged with unlawfully intercepting verbal communications on suspicion of installing a hidden recording device in a San Francisco office executive meeting room. The Saudi engineer, 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan, was arrested on 9 October local time on charges of illegally intercepting verbal communications. He has worked at OpenAI since July 2025. If convicted, he could face up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 (IT House note: the current exchange rate is about 1.676 million yuan). OpenAI security officers found the device in an executive meeting room in an office building in San Francisco on Sept. 30. The device was plugged into the USB port on the back of the conference room TV, previously hidden in toilet paper, and installed around September 28 with encrypted data inside. The meeting room is often used to discuss confidential information such as OpenAI's proprietary research, product initiatives, technical capabilities, business relationships, and government cooperation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Surveillance footage shows that Alfozan was present in the vicinity of the room on several occasions but was not authorized to attend the meeting in that room. Alfozan also used a productivity tool to search OpenAI's offices, meeting rooms, executive locations and meeting schedules, the indictment said. The chatbot account associated with Alfozan's spouse is used to ask questions about continuous recording, modifying the Wi-Fi connection, real-time monitoring, and encrypting the SD card. The US Department of Justice alleges that the chatbot account was used on September 27-28