Recording device hidden in toilet paper found in top-secret OpenAI meeting room

OpenAI took two days to spot a recording device tucked inside one of its restricted executive conference rooms, the kind of room reserved for leadership discussions about sensitive technical progress, government contacts, and business partnerships. The device was hidden inside toilet paper and plugged into the back of a television, according to the FBI.

The bureau says the man tied to the device is Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old engineer from Saudi Arabia who became a permanent US legal resident in 2020. In a Tuesday press release announcing his arrest, the FBI said chatbot logs and CCTV footage pointed to him and suggested he was trying to spy on OpenAI and expose trade secrets in a way that could affect national security.

The timeline, as described by investigators, is tight. The device was likely planted on September 28. OpenAI found it on September 30 and determined that the contents were encrypted, the FBI said.

Then came the twist. On October 5, OpenAI installed a camera in that same conference room, and the FBI says the footage showed Alfozan trying to retrieve the device that day. He had worked at OpenAI for more than a year, according to the bureau. The whole episode is a reminder that the weakest point in a secret meeting can be the room itself, not the model, the memo, or the policy deck.