A former OpenAI engineer charged with secretly installing a recording device in a conference room to gather company details had been mere days away from absconding to Saudi Arabia before his arrest last week, US prosecutors revealed in new court filings. Abdulrahman Alfozan's wife and young son also left the United States the day after the 35-year-old Saudi national's arrest, travelling on a one-way ticket booked and paid for by a Saudi military official, prosecutors said in a memo seeking his continued detention.

Alfozan, a Saudi man working for OpenAI, is accused of planting a secret surveillance device at the company's offices in San Francisco. Prosecutors say he concealed an audio recording device in toilet paper and plugged it into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room. He has been charged with using or endeavouring to use an electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept oral communications, and faces a five-year prison sentence if convicted.

Judge refuses home confinement

A federal judge in San Francisco sided with prosecutors, denying a request by Alfozan's lawyers to release him to home confinement. His next court date is in November. Prosecutors also pointed to the travel arrangements for his family after his arrest, allowing them to leave the United States sooner than the 12 October flight Alfozan had originally booked, as evidence of a flight risk.

These are prosecutors' allegations in a detention memo, not findings by a court, and Alfozan has not been convicted. The case sits at the intersection of corporate espionage, national security and the AI industry's secrecy: the device, prosecutors say, was placed where senior executives meet, and the alleged destination, days away at the time of arrest, was Saudi Arabia.