OpenAI Employee Arrested in Alleged AI Espionage Case, FBI Affidavit Says

An OpenAI employee identified as Alfozan was arrested after an FBI investigation into alleged covert audio recording devices, suspicious activity involving OpenAI’s AI tools, and possible efforts to monitor sensitive meetings, according to an FBI affidavit.

FBI Director Kash Patel, speaking in connection with President Donald Trump’s national security memorandum calling for efforts to maintain US leadership in artificial intelligence, celebrated Alfozan’s arrest and vowed to continue monitoring frontier AI labs such as OpenAI.

“This is essential to protecting our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of its highest counterintelligence priorities,” Patel said.

What the FBI says happened at OpenAI

OpenAI hired Alfozan in July 2025, but investigators say he began exhibiting suspicious behavior in the months that followed.

In August, Alfozan allegedly used an OpenAI productivity agent to determine when and where sensitive meetings were taking place, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Lydia Liang.

Investigators also examined a recording device discovered by OpenAI. Liang, a data analyst who joined the FBI after working for several technology companies, said the device was a Chinese-made Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense.

Liang said the device had been “customized to obfuscate what was stored on the device, including voice communications that could be intercepted.” She also said its microSD card had a “layout consistent with a potentially encrypted file system.”

FBI examined AI chatbot logs linked to Alfozan’s spouse

In addition to reviewing Alfozan’s questions to OpenAI productivity agents, the FBI investigated an AI chatbot account associated with his spouse.

According to the FBI, the account’s logs included prompts referencing the Seeed device’s unique MAC address. The prompts asked how Seeed devices continuously record, how to configure audio-triggered recording, and how to encrypt SD cards.

“These written prompts attributed to Alfozan and/or his spouse indicate that Alfozan inserted Recording Device 1 into the television in Conference Room 1,” Liang said.

She added that the prompts showed an interest in “constructing, customizing, installing, audio recording, testing, obfuscating, and remote accessing covert audio listening and recording devices.”