Federal prosecutors say Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national charged with secretly installing a recording device in an OpenAI executive conference room, booked a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia for himself, his wife and another family member before his arrest. The filing, dated Oct. 8, asked to seal the complaint because prosecutors feared he could flee if he learned of the case; he was arrested Oct. 9 and remains detained. Alfozan, 35, is a venture partner at Saudi firm Raed Ventures, which lists him as OpenAI's Engineering Lead. OpenAI fired him this month, saying it has no indication he accessed model weights, source code or customer data, and declined to say whether it knew of his role at the Saudi firm. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, though he is not charged with corporate espionage or trade secret theft.
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