A US district judge, , denied bail on Monday to Abdulrahman Alfozan, a former engineer charged with secretly planting a recording device in one of the company's meeting rooms. The judge said "there is a risk of non-appearance that is significant."
The 35-year-old had worked at OpenAI for around a year before he allegedly made his attempt to plant an audio recorder. The company discovered the device on 30 September, plugged into the back of a TV in a conference meeting room and covered up with toilet paper.
A camera was placed in the room, and on 5 October Alfozan was filmed entering and appearing to look behind the television where the recorder had been inserted. He was arrested by the on 9 October, and his contract with OpenAI was terminated.
In a court filing in California, US prosecutors claimed Alfozan had "considerable support" from the Saudi government and was in "frequent communication" with a member of the Saudi royal family. The filing also claims that a member of the country's military paid for a one-way flight to Saudi Arabia for his wife and son after his arrest.
According to the filing, Alfozan's arrest came three days before he was scheduled to fly from San Francisco to Riyadh on a one-way itinerary with his wife and son. On 10 October, the day after the arrest, his wife and son flew from San Francisco to Doha, Qatar, on a one-way business class ticket booked and paid for by a Saudi military official, the document claims.
The filing says his wife told FBI agents who interviewed her that her US visa was expiring, so she and her son were permanently moving back to Saudi Arabia, and that her husband intended to do the same. Prosecutors argued that "the defendant has little incentive to remain in the United States to see this case through."
The court filing claimed the alleged conduct could pose "a danger to the national security of the United States," because executives from the tech firm met with government officials in the room during the days the device was believed to have been installed.
The Saudi government did not immediately respond to BBC requests for comment. The FBI investigation is ongoing. Alfozan was scheduled to appear in federal court in San Francisco later on Monday, and if convicted he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.