OpenAI bugging suspect booked one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia with family before arrest

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."