Court Denies Release for Ex-OpenAI Engineer Over 2 Alleged Bugs and Saudi Flight Risk
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Oct 19
Court Denies Release for Ex-OpenAI Engineer Over 2 Alleged Bugs and Saudi Flight Risk
3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Oct 19
Summary
A federal court kept Abdulrahman Alfozan in custody after prosecutors said the former OpenAI engineer posed a serious flight risk while facing accusations he bugged a top-secret conference room.
Prosecutors said FBI evidence tied him to two planted listening devices, WhatsApp chats with a Saudi royal, and an iPhone folder labeled “Saudi Gov Docs” accessed shortly before his arrest.
A one-way ticket to Riyadh for Alfozan, his wife and baby was allegedly paid for by the Saudi government, and after his arrest his wife and son left the US on another one-way ticket booked by a Saudi military member.
The government said Alfozan has ample resources, including at least two Saudi bank accounts, and cited the unresolved case of former Twitter employee Ali Alzabarah as an example of alleged Saudi-assisted escape risk.