Because Alfozan would presumably have “little incentive to remain in the United States to see this case through,” Missakian asked the court to order his detention pending trial.
“Although FBI agents seized the defendant’s Saudi passport when they arrested him, there is nothing to stop the defendant, if he is released, from obtaining any necessary travel documents and fleeing the United States—with or without the help of a foreign government that has previously assisted its citizens depart the United States under similar circumstances,” Missakian’s filing argued.
On Monday, Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse agreed at a hearing that Alfozan should remain detained while mounting his defense, Business Insider reported.
Alfozan’s alleged escape plan
When Alfozan was arrested, he was living at home with his family in California. Since moving to the US in 2009, he’d received technical degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley. After more than a decade working in Silicon Valley, OpenAI eventually hired him “as an engineer in or around July 2025 with an annual base salary of $325,000,” the government’s court filing said. He also got “a new hire equity grant of $2,200,000 in profit participation units.”
Allegedly, Alfozan’s scheming against OpenAI started in the months after his hiring. Without detecting anything was amiss, OpenAI was preparing to grant Alfozan parental leave. His wife’s student visa had expired, and he planned to use his two months of paid time off to help her permanently move back to Saudi Arabia with their baby, the US filing said.
But he didn’t make the flight. About two weeks prior to the booking, OpenAI found a recording device hidden in a conference room. That device, the US court filing confirmed, was there for “at least multiple days” and had been in place during a top-secret meeting with US government officials.
“In the days surrounding the time period that the device was installed, OpenAI executives met with government officials in that very room,” the filing said. “Defendant’s conduct could pose a danger to the national security of the United States.”
