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Tuesday, October 20, 2026Other AI news

CourtsEx-OpenAI worker in bugging case: wife and son left on tickets bought by a Saudi military official, prosecutors say

US prosecutors told a court that the former OpenAI engineer charged with secretly planting a recording device in a conference room appears to have support from a foreign government.

The AP reported Oct 19 that, in a detention memo filed Oct 18, prosecutors said the wife and young son of Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, left the US the day after his arrest on one-way tickets booked and paid for by a Saudi military official. Prosecutors said he was 'mere days' from leaving for Saudi Arabia and has 'what appears to be considerable support from a foreign government.' Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the US.

Alfozan joined OpenAI in July 2025 and has been fired. His lawyers say the family's tickets were bought more than two weeks before the devices were allegedly installed, for a two-month paternity leave in Saudi Arabia. A judge took up detention on Oct 19 in San Francisco federal court.

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