Rippling filed a lawsuit in March against Deel, accusing it of corporate espionage using a Rippling employee to access confidential data.
This week UK fintech Revolut was wrangled into the dispute for handling payments to the alleged spy ex-employee.
Deel denies all allegations and plans to contest the claims in court, while Rippling seeks documentation from Revolut to identify the payment sender.
Rippling’s lawsuit against Deel escalated this week, with new court documents pulling UK fintech giant Revolut into the dispute for its role in allegedly handling payments to the offending ex-employee.
The backstory: The case revolves around allegations that Deel paid Irish-based Rippling employee Keith O’Brien $6,000/mo to spy on Rippling in Slack. Rippling filed a lawsuit in March, alleging that its rival, Deel, orchestrated a months-long campaign of corporate espionage using a Rippling employee as a spy. The complaint accuses Deel of cultivating the employee to conduct thousands of unauthorized searches within Rippling’s internal systems, funneling confidential business intelligence directly to Deel.
New allegations: According to reporting from TechCrunch and an affidavit filed in Ireland’s High Court, O’Brien claims the first payment was sent to his Revolut account in November 2024 by Deel COO Dan Westgarth‘s wife.
Escape to Dubai: Deel’s CEO and legal director are reportedly in Dubai, making it harder for Rippling to serve them with legal papers in a jurisdiction that has limited extradition agreements with the EU and U.S. Meanwhile, strict EU data rules mean that, in the absence of a direct Irish High Court order, Revolut can only produce the information with either a court mandate or the customer’s consent.
Slack secrets: According to Rippling, the spy’s activity included searching for the term “Deel” an average of 23 times a day over four months, capturing sensitive details about Rippling’s sales pipeline, proposed pricing, sales meetings, and internal strategies for competing with Deel. The lawsuit alleges the spy accessed more than 6,000 Slack channels unrelated to his job, obtaining confidential sales data and internal customer communications.
Wrongdoing denied: Payment for the espionage activity was allegedly made to a Revolut account. Rippling has filed legal action against Revolut to obtain documentation confirming the sender’s identity, but Revolut has stated it will only comply with a court order, citing strict EU privacy laws. Deel has denied all allegations of legal wrongdoing, stating that it looks forward to contesting the claims in court and asserting its own counterclaims.
Rippling filed a lawsuit in March against Deel, accusing it of corporate espionage using a Rippling employee to access confidential data.
This week UK fintech Revolut was wrangled into the dispute for handling payments to the alleged spy ex-employee.
Deel denies all allegations and plans to contest the claims in court, while Rippling seeks documentation from Revolut to identify the payment sender.
Rippling’s lawsuit against Deel escalated this week, with new court documents pulling UK fintech giant Revolut into the dispute for its role in allegedly handling payments to the offending ex-employee.
The backstory: The case revolves around allegations that Deel paid Irish-based Rippling employee Keith O’Brien $6,000/mo to spy on Rippling in Slack. Rippling filed a lawsuit in March, alleging that its rival, Deel, orchestrated a months-long campaign of corporate espionage using a Rippling employee as a spy. The complaint accuses Deel of cultivating the employee to conduct thousands of unauthorized searches within Rippling’s internal systems, funneling confidential business intelligence directly to Deel.
New allegations: According to reporting from TechCrunch and an affidavit filed in Ireland’s High Court, O’Brien claims the first payment was sent to his Revolut account in November 2024 by Deel COO Dan Westgarth‘s wife.
Escape to Dubai: Deel’s CEO and legal director are reportedly in Dubai, making it harder for Rippling to serve them with legal papers in a jurisdiction that has limited extradition agreements with the EU and U.S. Meanwhile, strict EU data rules mean that, in the absence of a direct Irish High Court order, Revolut can only produce the information with either a court mandate or the customer’s consent.
Slack secrets: According to Rippling, the spy’s activity included searching for the term “Deel” an average of 23 times a day over four months, capturing sensitive details about Rippling’s sales pipeline, proposed pricing, sales meetings, and internal strategies for competing with Deel. The lawsuit alleges the spy accessed more than 6,000 Slack channels unrelated to his job, obtaining confidential sales data and internal customer communications.
Wrongdoing denied: Payment for the espionage activity was allegedly made to a Revolut account. Rippling has filed legal action against Revolut to obtain documentation confirming the sender’s identity, but Revolut has stated it will only comply with a court order, citing strict EU privacy laws. Deel has denied all allegations of legal wrongdoing, stating that it looks forward to contesting the claims in court and asserting its own counterclaims.
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