Tag: Rippling

Deel scores a lawsuit win, but not against Rippling

Posted on by faz_business


A Florida judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed against embattled HR and payroll provider Deel. And while Deel described this as a “Rippling-aligned” and “Rippling-supported” lawsuit, this is not the infamous lawsuit filed by its rival earlier this year that involved an alleged corporate spy.

Rippling CEO Parker Conrad even went so far as to say “This litigation has nothing to do with Rippling, we are not a party to it, did not fund it,” in a tweet. (Rippling representatives declined further comment.)

Still, this is some good news for Deel. In January, a lawsuit was filed in Florida by Melanie Damian, who accused Deel of helping Russian entities sidestep U.S. sanctions by processing payments for Surge Capital Ventures.

Surge had been part of a separate U.S. SEC action alleging it was involved in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded church members out of $35 million. Damian, a court-appointed receiver for Surge, was tasked with the mission to recover assets, Semafor reported at the time. She filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of Surge, attempting to blame Deel for processing the payments. This is the case that was dismissed.

Deel is attempting to tie this case to the suit filed by Rippling in part because Damian’s lawyers cited the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Rippling, who is suing Deel in California, is also claiming Deel violated RICO, as well as the Defend Trade Secrets Act, and California state law, as TechCrunch previously reported. RICO is famously the statute that was originally used to charge mobsters.

Rippling’s lawsuit, however, involves one of its own employees who testified in an Irish court that he had been acting as a paid corporate spy for Deel. 

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Deel is clearly hoping that if one court dismisses a lawsuit arguing RICO violations, another court will also dismiss. “The ruling invites further questions on the credibility of another baseless set of RICO accusations by Rippling in California,” a Deel spokesperson told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. 

But as these cases involve different actions and circumstances, we’ll all have to wait and see how the California court responds. Meanwhile, Deel is also suing Rippling, claiming that one of Rippling’s employees was unlawfully impersonating a customer.

On top of all of that, the person who confessed to being Deel’s alleged corporate spy, Keith O’Brien, successfully filed a restraining order against people he said were following him and scaring his family. O’Brien is now Rippling’s star witness in its case against Deel. 

At first, lawyers for Deel denied involvement and later they admitted the company had hired “discrete surveillance” of O’Brien, according to court testimony seen by TechCrunch, and first reported by the Irish Independent. 

“Alex and his father can deflect and delay but they will face the music when we get our day in court,” Conrad added in his tweet, referring to Rippling’s case that names Deel’s founder CEO Alex Bouaziz and his father, who is chairman and CFO, Philippe Bouaziz.

“Deel will explore all its options for relief, defend itself vigorously against pending cases and continue to focus on winning in the marketplace,” a Deel spokesperson said in that statement.

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Rippling spy says men have been following him, and his wife is afraid

Posted on by faz_business


If becoming a spy sounds like an exciting way to live like a le Carré character, let this newest affidavit from confessed Rippling spy Keith O’Brien serve as a warning.

On Friday, an Irish judge granted O’Brien a restraining order against several men who have not yet been identified, according to the court order seen by TechCrunch. O’Brien testified that multiple men — two in a gray Skoda Superb on one occasion, and more often, a short-haired, heavy-set man in a black SUV, sometimes accompanied by a large dog — had repeatedly followed his car and watched his home.

O’Brien’s story has captured the imagination of the tech industry after his colorful confession in April, in which he alleged that he was a spy for Deel. He said he was paid €5,000 a month to steal Rippling’s internal data on everything from products to customers. Rippling caught him by setting up a honeypot Slack channel. On the day he was caught, O’Brien pretended to flush his phone down the corporate toilet and later smashed it, dropping pieces down the drain at his mother-in-law’s house, according to his affidavit. 

Now he’s the star witness for Rippling in its lawsuit against Deel. Rippling is even picking up the tab for his legal and related expenses, its lawyers testified. Deel is also countersuing Rippling, claiming it was spied on too, by a Rippling employee impersonating a customer. The two HR tech companies have been bitter rivals for years after Deel — once a Rippling customer — began offering competing products. 

In the latest part of the saga, O’Brien testified that he tried to lose the black SUV following his car by making sudden turns and taking roundabout ways to get home, only to see it reappear in his rearview mirror. He hired a security consulting company and feared that someone was placing tracking devices on his car.

O’Brien claims all of these incidents have created “emotional and psychological” damage for himself and his wife. “We have been experiencing anxiety at home and in public. It has affected our sleep and our concentration,” O’Brien said in his latest affidavit. They are fearful for the safety of their four children.

He and his lawyer speculated that this was intended as harassment related to his role as star witness. However, O’Brien’s lawyer also admitted in court that they had no evidence tying the men to Deel. Deel also denied knowing anything about the man in the black SUV.

According to the Irish publication Business Post, when granting the injunction, the judge apparently said, “As if they are in a 1970s cops and robbers” TV show. 

Whatever happens in the dueling court cases, O’Brien has made himself the rope in a bitter tug of war between these two well-funded HR startups. And from what he says in his testimony, it sounds painful.