Because Alfozan would likely have “little incentive to remain in the United States and pursue this case,” Missakian asked the court to order him detained pending trial.
“Although FBI agents confiscated the defendant’s Saudi passport when they arrested him, there is nothing that would prevent the defendant, if released, from obtaining the necessary travel documents and fleeing the United States, with or without the assistance of a foreign government that has previously assisted its citizens in leaving the United States under similar circumstances,” Missakian’s filing argues.
On Monday, Judge Alex G. Tse agreed at a hearing that Alfozan should remain in custody while he prepared his defense, Business Insider reported.
Alfozán’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 has received associate degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley. After more than a decade working in Silicon Valley, OpenAI finally hired him “as an engineer on or about July 2025 with an annual base salary of $325,000,” according to the government’s court filing. It also got “a new employee capital grant of $2.2 million in profit-sharing units.”
Alfozan’s plans against OpenAI allegedly began in the months after he was hired. Without detecting anything wrong, 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 return to Saudi Arabia with their baby, according to the U.S. document.
But he didn’t make the flight. About two weeks before the booking, OpenAI found a recording device hidden in a conference room. That device, the US court filing confirmed, had been there for “at least several days” and had been in place during a top-secret meeting with US government officials.
“In the days surrounding the period in which the device was installed, OpenAI executives met with government officials in that same room,” the document says. “The defendant’s conduct could pose a danger to the national security of the United States.”
