An Irish payroll manager received thousands of euro in monthly payments to pass information from his own firm to a rival company, and then was instructed by lawyers for the rival to provide false statements to the Central Bank of Ireland and the High Court in order to “shift” the narrative when the alleged “spying” arrangement came to light, the court has heard.
In a sworn statement to the court, opened before Mr Justice Mark Sanfey on Wednesday, Keith O’Brien said that while he was working for US-headquartered human resources (HR) firm Rippling, he passed “a lot” of confidential information to the chief executive of rival firm Deel, Alex Bouaziz.
Mr O’Brien, of Ringford Avenue, Balrothery, Dublin said that in and around September 2024, Mr Bouaziz, a French citizen, suggested that he “become a ‘spy’” for his company in return for a monetary reward.
Mr O’Brien and Mr Bouaziz had previously connected on LinkedIn after Mr O’Brien unsuccessfully applied for a job at Deel in March 2024. The two men had been speaking for some time when Mr Bouaziz made the suggestion – “I recall him specifically mentioning James Bond,” Mr O’Brien said – after the Dubliner said he was considering leaving his job at Rippling.
Mr O’Brien eventually accepted Mr Bouaziz’s offer, he said. Mr O’Brien was told he’d be paid €5,000 a month for “spying”. “I understood what Alex was asking me to do was wrong, and I believe he knew it was wrong too,” Mr O’Brien said.
Mr Bouaziz told Mr O’Brien that he would need to provide information regarding Rippling’s “ways of doing things”. Mr O’Brien said he understood this to mean corporate strategy, customer insights and other interesting company information.
Mr O’Brien said that his first payment was received in November 2024 for $6,000. The payment was made via Revolut, and sent by Alba Basha, the spouse of Deel’s chief operations officer, Dan Westgarth, Mr O’Brien claims. Following this payment, Mr Bouaziz told Mr O’Brien that future payments would be made via cryptocurrency “as a method that would leave ‘no trace’”, the latter said.
Mr O’Brien said he communicated with Mr Bouaziz “multiple times a day every workday, and sometimes on the weekends”. Mr O’Brien said the Deel chief would direct him to search specific terms on various platforms used by Ripplings “in order to yield the information he wanted”.
Mr O’Brien said he screenshotted and screen recorded in order to capture information, and then sent the captures to Mr Bouaziz via Telegram, the secure messaging platform. Mr O’Brien said that he provided “a lot” of confidential information.
When Mr O’Brien expressed to Mr Bouaziz that he was planning to leave Rippling, Mr Bouaziz suggested that he keep spying for a few more months, he said. Mr Bouaziz said that COO Mr Westgarth “would see to it” that a venture Mr O’Brien had started, dubbed Global Payroll Geeks, would get money from Deel.
Amidst the emergence of the suspected “spying” arrangement last month, Rippling obtained High Court orders to inspect Mr O’Brien’s devices. The orders were served on Mr O’Brien by an independent solicitor at Rippling’s Dublin offices.
Mr O’Brien did not comply with these orders – he reset his phone and left the office after the solicitor tried to stop him, he said.
Over the following days, Mr O’Brien spoke with Andrea David Mieli, Deel’s Global Senior Director of Legal, and Asif Malik, a Deel in-house lawyer. Mr O’Brien said he received reassurances from the men, and that he understood Mr Malik to say that Mr Bouaziz would “take care” of him if he refused to co-operate with Rippling.
Mr O’Brien said he understood an offer from Mr Malik to fly him and his family to Dubai was his suggestion that he “flee Ireland permanently and that Deel would put me up in Dubai”.
Mr O’Brien claims that Mr Malik directed him – in order to “shift” the narrative – to make statements to the High Court, the Central Bank of Ireland and Deel’s Irish solicitors A & L Goodbody alleging that Rippling facilitated “sanctioned ‘Russian payments’”, and that he was being harassed for reporting such payments.
Mr O’Brien said he knew these claims to be false, but said he went along with the plan initially. “It seemed like a way out of the situation,” Mr O’Brien said.
Mr O’Brien said he subsequently made a “false” report to the Central Bank of Ireland, and emailed A & L Goodbody alleging harassment over reporting “Russian payments”, and stated that he never shared data with Deel.
On March 16th, as directed by Mr Malik, Mr O’Brien destroyed his phone with an axe and put it down a drain at his mother-in-law’s house, Mr O’Brien said. This was two days after the date he’d told the High Court he’d destroyed it.
Mr O’Brien said that following a High Court hearing on March 19th, he felt that “Deel’s support” and that of its in-house lawyers was “beginning to pull away”.
Mr O’Brien subsequently agreed to comply with the orders of the High Court, and began to co-operate with Rippling’s lawyers. He turned over devices and participated in interviews.
Explaining why he decided to co-operate, Mr O’Brien said he was “getting sick concealing this lie”. He said he was – and still is – concerned about how “wealthy and powerful” Mr Bouaziz is.
“I want to do what I can to start making amends and righting these wrongs,” he said.
On Wednesday, Marcus Dowling SC, for Rippling, moved a motion seeking to join San Francisco-based Deel Inc; Mr Bouaziz, with an address in Paris, France; Mr Malik, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England; and Rome-based Mr Mieli to the proceedings brought against Mr O’Brien.
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey said it seemed appropriate to him to join the four proposed defendants, and gave permission to serve the proceedings on them. The application was granted with only the Rippling side represented.
He said that the allegations made against the proposed defendants are “extremely serious”, and that they must be given an opportunity to “meet those allegations in full”. Deel has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Justice Sanfey also granted leave for Rippling to bring a motion seeking Revolut to provide details about a payment received by Mr O’Brien.
