CNBC reports:

Abdulrahman Alfozan, the Saudi national charged with secretly installing a recording device in an executive conference room at OpenAI, had booked a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia with his wife and a third family member before his arrest, federal prosecutors told a judge in a newly unsealed court filing.

Alfozan “has the means — and will have the incentive — to flee the United States sooner if he learns about this case before he is arrested,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco said in the Oct. 8 filing, which asked a judge to seal a criminal complaint against him and a warrant for his arrest.

The filing said the tickets were booked for Oct. 12, from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia via Istanbul.

The judge granted the sealing request, and Alfozan was arrested Oct. 9, the Department of Justice has said.

He has been detained since his arrest.

Alfozan, 35, is a venture partner in a Saudi Arabian venture capital firm that lists a prince from that nation’s ruling royal family as a fellow partner.

The VC firm, Raed Ventures, says on its website that Alfozan, who lives in the San Francisco area, “is a seasoned technology professional with deep experience in startups, entrepreneurship, and scaling tech companies.”

“He currently serves as Engineering Lead at OpenAI, with a focus on AI Agents and the data platform,” Alfozan’s bio page on Raed’s site says.

Raed, which focuses on investments in the Middle East, announced Alfozan had joined the firm on Feb. 8, 2025, two days after Raed said Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud had joined as a venture partner. A venture partner usually is a consulting or project-based role, not an investing partner or director who is responsible for raising funds or leading deals.

Alfozan had worked at OpenAI since July 2025, according to the Department of Justice. The company said it terminated him this month.

The Financial Times reported Wednesday that when Saudi tech influencers visited San Francisco in September, “it was Alfozan who welcomed them to OpenAI offices where he gave them tours.”

A former CIA official with extensive experience in the Middle East, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of their past work, told CNBC that Raed Ventures is “basically a state organ” of the Saudi government. One of Raed’s funds in December 2024 received an investment from Saudi Venture Capital, a subsidiary of SME Bank, which is part of Saudi Arabia’s National Development Fund.

In addition to being a venture partner in Raed, the prince, Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, is a member of the ruling Al Saud family, and the managing director and vice chairman of his family’s private office, according to his bio on Raed’s website.

The former CIA official said that if Alfozan’s alleged bugging of OpenAI is part of a state-sponsored espionage effort, it shows that “in the AI and tech boom, even the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has assessed that the risk is worth the gain to engage in economic espionage against a close ally.”

The former official also said this incident is “probably the tip of the iceberg.” [Continue reading…]