OpenAI conference room eavesdropping case: Saudi defendant pleads not guilty, faces up to five years in prison if convicted

Al-Fawzan was photographed checking for listening devices

On Friday, Al-Fawzan attended a preliminary hearing before a U.S. federal magistrate judge. His lawyer, David W. Rizk, said his client pleaded not guilty to the single charge brought by prosecutors. The charge is interception of oral communications, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Al-Fawzan is currently in federal custody, and his next court appearance will be on November 17.

Al-Fawzan is accused of wrapping a thumb-sized circuit board and microphone in toilet paper and hiding them behind a wall-mounted television in an executive conference room at the OpenAI office on or around September 28 of this year. At the time, he was about to leave the United States.

He had been working on the OpenAI product team since July 2025 until he was fired this October. On the same day, he was also arrested and charged.

Prosecutors had alleged that Al-Fawzan had booked one-way tickets for himself, his wife and his newborn son for an October 12 flight from San Francisco via Istanbul to Saudi Arabia. Prosecutors said that shortly after Al-Fawzan's arrest, his wife and son left the United States without him.

Prosecutors also said that the one-way tickets for his wife and child were initially paid for by the Saudi government, but the originally scheduled flight was later canceled. According to documents filed by prosecutors, a Saudi military official subsequently rebooked the two on another one-way flight to Qatar, this time in business class.

Al-Fawzan's lawyer argued that the military official is his wife's brother-in-law, and said she left because of visa issues. Al-Fawzan's lawyer previously said she planned to return to the United States to support her husband.