Accused OpenAI engineer booked a one-way flight, prosecutors say

The tickets are why prosecutors wanted the charges kept secret. Their 8 October request to the judge said he, his wife and a third relative were due to leave San Francisco on 12 October, changing in Istanbul. The FBI arrested him on 9 October. The single charge he faces, attempting to intercept oral communications, has a maximum sentence of five years. He is presumed innocent.

The 35-year-old Saudi national said in a podcast last month that he had advised Saudi organisations on technology, The New York Times reported in a story carried by The Mercury News. A Riyadh venture firm also lists him as a partner. OpenAI hired him in July 2025 and says it has found nothing to show he wrongly obtained sensitive details about its technology or customers. Neither trade secret theft nor working for a foreign government is among the charges, his lawyer points out.

For anyone building or buying AI, the complaint is a public court record of how, prosecutors say, one lab traced a suspected insider, from a hidden camera to a second device left in a bag.