Abdulrahman Alfozan, the 35-year-old former OpenAI engineer, appeared in court in San Francisco on Monday wearing an orange jumpsuit and white face mask while escorted by two U.S. marshals. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse said a $1 million bond had to be weighed against the possibility that Alfozan “potentially has access to much greater wealth.”

“Once he leaves, there’s no getting him back, and that’s why this is a bigger case,” Tse said in the courtroom Monday morning.

Alfozan has been in jail since the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested him on Oct. 9, alleging he planted the device in a conference room where executives, and sometimes government officials, discussed sensitive information.

Ahead of Monday's court hearing, both prosecutors for the federal government and the defense filed court documents revealing new details about the case including one-way tickets for a flight to Saudi Arabia that Alfozan allegedly booked for himself, his wife, and 3-month-old son, as well as WhatsApp communications that Alfozan allegedly had with a member of the Saudi royal family.

According to Alfozan's lawyer, Alfozan often books one-way tickets to allow for scheduling flexibility around his work schedule. In fact, 70% (96 of 138) of the airline bookings “in his email since January 2021 were one-way tickets," the defense motion says. 

“His plan was always to return to the Bay Area, where his home, his career, and his community are,” the defense motion says. “The evidence shows that Mr. Alfozan planned to accompany his wife and son to Saudi Arabia for his paternity leave and then return.” —Emily Forlini and Wen Shao