OpenAI engineer’s lawyer says spying allegations clash with his character and prepaid Saudi flight

Attorney William Pernik, defending former OpenAI staffer Abdulrahman Alfozan, maintains that the charge of installing a recording device at the company’s San Francisco headquarters is wholly inconsistent with Alfozan’s character. He stresses that Alfozan’s one-way flight to Saudi Arabia on Oct. 12 was prepaid and arranged before the arrest, and urges the public not to draw conclusions based on his nationality. The FBI complaint, which highlights Alfozan’s Saudi citizenship and U.S. permanent residency since 2020, alleges he planted the device on Sept. 28 after planning it with AI tools.

OpenAI discovered the device during a routine sweep on Sept. 30, terminated Alfozan on Oct. 9, and says no trade-secret theft was found. Alfozan’s background includes studies at MIT, internships at SAP and Microsoft, five years at Meta, a Silicon Valley startup, and a partnership at RAED Ventures. His next court date is set for Oct. 19, and Pernik says he will fully respond once more information is available.