The attorney for the former OpenAI employee accused of planting a recording device in the company’s San Francisco headquarters is calling the allegations “wholly out of character,” insisting his client’s flight to Saudi Arabia was pre-booked, and urging the public not to jump to conclusions about the suspect’s Saudi nationality.
William Pernik, who represents the suspect Abdulrahman Alfozan, admits that his information was still “limited” and says he plans to respond more fully “in court of law” once he has full information. The next court appearance is set for Oct. 19.
Alfozan, along with his wife and small child, was set to travel from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia on a one-way flight on Oct. 12; the federal complaint suggests that Alfozan may have been planning to use that trip to “flee” the U.S.
The flight was “prepaid,” and Alfozan was “surprised by the search and arrest,” according to Pernik. The reason for the flight and the date it was booked remain unknown.
Still, Pernik insists that “the allegations appear wholly out of character for this gentleman.”
Alfozan is a Saudi national and has been a legal permanent resident of the U.S. since 2020, according to the FBI complaint. He has lived and worked in the U.S. since 2011, when he enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s computer science program.
The FBI highlighted Alfozan’s Saudi nationality in its press release announcing the arrest. Yet Pernik urges the public to “refrain from jumping to conclusions based on the nature of the allegation or our client’s national origin, which seems to be the focal point of attention, despite many years spent living, studying, and raising his family here, like millions of other immigrants.”
Alfozan’s work history features well-known tech companies, including internships at SAP and Microsoft, as well as a five-year stint at Meta. He then founded his own startup in Silicon Valley, and joined OpenAI in July 2025, OpenAI told Fortune. Alfozan also joined a Saudi-based venture capital firm, RAED Ventures, as a partner in 2025.
Pernik says Alfozan was “passionate about technology and was proud to be working at OpenAI.”
OpenAI terminated Alfozan’s employment on Oct. 9, the same day the FBI arrested him. OpenAI and the FBI worked together after an OpenAI security team found the recording device during a routine sweep on Sept. 30. According to the complaint, Alfozan allegedly planted the device on Sept. 28 after spending over a month planning the act on ChatGPT and an internal agentic AI tool.
“Our security program is designed to protect against a wide range of threat actors, from insider risks to cybercriminals to nation states,” said OpenAI.
Neither the FBI nor OpenAI has found any evidence that Alfozan leaked any information. Pernik notes that Alfozan was not charged with sharing trade secrets, but rather with violating “a general federal recording statute.”
“Our government has the right to protect our country’s intellectual property and technological assets, and it should, but it must be consistent with our values and our laws,” Pernik says. “Like any other person, Mr. Alfozan is entitled to presumption of innocence and due process of law. It is our duty to ensure that he is treated fairly and justly. That’s what we are going to do.”
The post Lawyer of arrested OpenAI engineer says allegations are ‘wholly out of character,’ one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia with wife and child was pre-booked appeared first on Fortune.
