US Court Denies Release of Ex-OpenAI Engineer Accused of Spying for Saudi Arabia

On Monday, a federal court ruled against the release of Abdulrahman Alfozan, a former engineer at OpenAI, who is accused of inserting a bug in a secure conference room to obtain confidential information. US attorney Craig Missakian expressed concerns that Alfozan might flee, suggesting his actions were motivated by personal interests or to aid Saudi Arabia. Prosecutors highlighted that he communicated with a member of the Saudi royal family while attempting to move to Saudi Arabia. The FBI discovered he had accessed a folder titled "Saudi Gov Docs" on his iPhone and had arranged one-way flights for his family to Riyadh, allegedly funded by the Saudi government. Previously, his wife and son departed the US, and a Saudi military official secured a ticket to Doha, Qatar.