美國司法部控告 OpenAI 工程師涉嫌在高層會議室設置秘密錄音裝置

The Justice Department announced on October 13, 2026 that Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old OpenAI engineer and national of Saudi Arabia, was arrested and charged with using a surreptitious device to intercept oral communications inside an executive conference room at the company’s San Francisco offices. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Alfozan was arrested on October 9, 2026, and made his initial appearance in federal court on October 13, 2026, the day the complaint against him was unsealed. He is charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. According to the complaint, Alfozan had been employed as an engineer by OpenAI since July 2025.

The Recording Device and Its Discovery

On or about September 30, 2026, OpenAI personnel discovered a surreptitious audio recording device inserted into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room inside one of the company’s buildings in San Francisco, according to the complaint. The device had been concealed in toilet paper. OpenAI determined that it had been installed on or about September 28, 2026, and that its contents were encrypted.

Closed-circuit television footage from inside OpenAI’s office showed Alfozan near the executive conference room on multiple dates before the discovery, although he had no authority to access the room or to participate in meetings held there, the complaint states. Meetings in that room frequently involved highly confidential technical, commercial, and strategic information, including proprietary research, product plans, and business-development opportunities, as well as nonpublic information about OpenAI’s technical progress and strategic decisions, capabilities, priorities, government engagements, and commercial relationships.

The Digital Trail and a Second Device

Before September 28, 2026, Alfozan used a productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about OpenAI’s building addresses, meeting rooms, meeting-room capacities and calendars, the locations of leadership and executives, and external partner meetings, according to the complaint.

A chatbot account associated with Alfozan’s spouse, which shared multiple identifiers and attributes with Alfozan’s own chatbot account, submitted prompts between September 24, 2026, and September 30 related to building, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remotely accessing a device, the complaint alleges. The prompts included inquiries about building a continuous audio recorder, customizing Wi-Fi connectivity, improving audio and live listening, and encrypting the SD card. The same account also submitted prompts specifically related to the discovered device, including its custom header and unique MAC address, between September 27, 2026, and September 28.

On October 5, 2026, Alfozan entered the executive conference room and appeared to look behind the television into which the device had been inserted, the complaint alleges. Also on or about October 5, Alfozan left a bag unattended in a different room in an OpenAI building. OpenAI security personnel found and opened the bag and discovered another recording device, similar to the first, along with Alfozan’s wallet and identification.

Penalty, Official Statements, and OpenAI’s Response

A conviction also carries three years of supervised release following the prison term. The FBI is investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Parker for the Northern District of California is prosecuting it, with assistance from Trial Attorney Kate Tagert of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

The department said the prosecution supports National Security Presidential Memorandum 11, which it described as designed to support American superiority in super intelligence technology. FBI Director Kash Patel said the unsealed complaint alleges Alfozan concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology, and that the FBI treats protecting that innovation as one of its highest counterintelligence priorities. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said the case underscores why winning the global super intelligence race is a national security prerogative, and credited President Trump’s leadership in creating the Super Intelligence Force. U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian for the Northern District of California said his office considers the matter one of national security and highlighted its partnership with the FBI to identify and prosecute those who seek to steal American technology.

OpenAI said in a public statement on October 13, 2026 that it discovered a sophisticated recording device hidden inside one of its offices, then used its models to understand the device and where it had come from, identifying that a specific employee had planted it a few days earlier. The company said it referred the matter to the FBI and will continue supporting the ongoing investigation.

OpenAI said it has no indications that the individual inappropriately accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code, or customer data, and that the employee was terminated. The company said its security program is designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation states, and described the case as an example of how AI can help address sophisticated security threats.