The affidavit of a Rippling employee caught spying for Deel reads like a movie

Summary

On Wednesday, Rippling publicly released the affidavit of the Rippling employee who testified that he was working as a spy for the HR tech company’s arch rival Deel. And the account, coupled with Rippling’s lawsuit filed against Deel last week, reads like a corporate espionage movie script, complete with a sting operation and a smashed phone. It’s the latest escapade between the two. TechCrunch has documented the most Hollywood-esque parts of the testimony below, but be aware that this is only one side of the story — the side Rippling wants everyone to know, as its PR machine has blasted it out, and CEO Parker Conrad tweet-stormed about it. To recap: Rippling, a workforce management platform, very publicly announced last week that it was suing Deel over this alleged spying, leveling charges ranging from violation of the RICO racketeering act (often used to prosecute members of the Mafia) to misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition. But at that time, it didn’t reveal the name of the Rippling employee. That changed on Wednesday, when it released the affidavit signed April 1. Becoming a corporate spy According to this affidavit, Keith O’Brien was hired by Rippling in July 2023 in the global payroll and compliance department in the Dublin office. In early 2024, he interviewed for a job at Deel and didn’t get it, but did, he testified, connect with Deel’s founder over LinkedIn. The employee later started a payroll consulting business, pitched Deel on working with him and eventually told them he planned to quit Rippling to work full time on it. The employee testified that Deel founder CEO Alex Bouaziz and Bouaziz’s father, Philippe Bouaziz, Deel’s CFO, suggested that, instead of quitting, O’Brien spy on Rippling for them. O’Brien testified that they offered to pay him €5,000 per month with the first payment at US$6,000, and later transactions in crypto. O’Brien testified that he conducted searches on Slack, Google Drive, and other Rippling resources for in...