New Evidence Shows Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz and Top Leadership Personally Directed Corporate Espionage Scheme, New Legal Filing Alleges

SAN FRANCISCO, JUNE 5, 2025 – Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz was the chief architect of an elaborate and extensive scheme to steal Rippling’s confidential trade secrets using a corporate spy, an amended complaint filed today in federal court alleges.

As stated in the complaint: “This case is about a criminal syndicate that operated from the shadows of a multibillion-dollar technology company – Deel. At its helm are CEO Alex Bouaziz and his father Philippe Bouaziz, who directed a racketeering enterprise that steals and repurposes the hard-earned work of its victims to unlawfully fuel Deel’s growth (the ‘Bouaziz Racketeering Enterprise’). This enterprise encompasses several senior Deel executives, collaborative outsiders, and carefully groomed, disaffected employees turned corporate spies from rival firms. To date, at least four distinct corporate victims have been identified—each targeted, infiltrated, and compromised to serve the aims of the Bouaziz Racketeering Enterprise.” 

The amended complaint includes: 

1. New messages show stolen information was weaponized in “real-time” by Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz.

2. Rippling is not the only victim. In one case, the complaint alleges Deel stole Victim-3’s entire CRM.

   • “To date, at least four distinct corporate victims have been identified—each targeted, infiltrated, and compromised to serve the aims of the Bouaziz Racketeering Enterprise.”

3. Deel specifically targeted other major EOR competitors. 

   • The complaint alleges other major EOR competitors“have uncovered eerily similar conduct by Deel or its associates to obtain their confidential information and trade secrets.”

   • Additional evidence will be brought forward once formal subpoenas are issued.

   • According to a news report, a major EOR competitor has reported Deel to U.S. federal law enforcement.

4. Images from Deel’s spy’s phone clearly show Alex Bouaziz and Dan Westgarth attempting a cover up.

5. Images show Deel’s lawyers caught, in real time, attempting to contact their spy on a burner phone.

6. Images show proof of crypto payments to their spy’s blockchain.com account.

To read the amended complaint, click here: https://rippling2.imgix.net/fac.pdf

To read the exhibits, click here: https://rippling2.imgix.net/exhibits.pdf

1. New messages show stolen information was weaponized in “real-time” by Deel CEO.

On Nov 6, Deel’s spy visited #deal-desk-sales Slack channel, with 100 distinct sales leads on that day alone, including details about Prospect-A. The Slack message indicates Prospect-A is considering moving from Deel to Rippling:

That afternoon, Alex Bouaziz sends a WhatsApp message to Prospect-A company:

On November 19, the founder told the Rippling’s Sales team “on the same day of our call, I received a whatsapp message from a French number stating ‘I am Deel CEO.’” The founder noted: “That scared TSO of me.”

The next day, he followed up with our team, wondering how they would know this information “in real time”:

2. Rippling was not the only victim. “To date, at least four distinct corporate victims have been identified—each targeted, infiltrated, and compromised to serve the aims of the Bouaziz Racketeering Enterprise.” In one case, the complaint alleges Deel stole Victim-3’s CRM:

3. Deel specifically targeted other major EOR competitors:

The complaint alleges other major EOR competitors “have uncovered eerily similar conduct by Deel or its associates to obtain their confidential information and trade secrets.” 

Additional evidence will be brought forward once formal subpoenas are issued. 

According to a news report, a major EOR competitor has reported Deel to U.S. federal law enforcement.

4. Images from Keith O’Brien’s phone clearly show Alex Bouaziz and Dan Westgarth attempting a cover up

“Caught red handed, Deel CEO Alex and COO Dan worked to erase all digital traces of contact with O’Brien. On March 20, O’Brien noticed that Alex (the “+33” number below) had renamed the three-way WhatsApp group chat between himself, O’Brien, and Defendant Westgarth from “Keith <> Dan” to “V” and left the group. Three days later, on March 23, Defendant Westgarth left the group chat.”  

5. Deel’s lawyers got caught, in real time, attempting to contact their spy on a burner phone

On March 15, they instructed their spy to destroy his phone and buy a burner. From March 15, 2025 to March 25, 2025, O’Brien spoke with Deel’s lawyers every single day. 

O’Brien came forward, confessed, and turned over his devices, including his burner, to an independent forensic investigator. 

Not realizing the phone was actually in the possession of a forensic investigator,  Deel’s lawyers attempted to call their spy twice the morning he was scheduled to appear in court. When the phone rang, the investigator took a picture of Deel’s lawyer calling the burner. 

According to the complaint, “O’Brien was due back in court on March 31 to face Justice Sanfey. In the two hours leading up to this court hearing, Malik, who was not aware that O’Brien had confessed, attempted to contact O’Brien twice by way of his burner phone.

“By this point, O’Brien’s burner phone was in the possession of and being actively monitored by an independent forensic investigator. The forensic investigator recorded the two calls from Malik to O’Brien’s burner phone at the time they occurred.

“Malik then took the intentional step of manually deleting the electronic record of both calls by midday—even though, consistent with Deel’s pattern of erasing records, the calls were already set to delete after 24 hours. Malik’s act of manual deletion was also observed and recorded by the forensic investigator.”

6. Proof of crypto payments

Philippe Bouaziz – Alex’s father, Deel CFO, Deel Board Chair, and Deel former interim General Counsel – switched from Revolut payments to crypto because he wanted to make sure the payments left “no trace”.

Here are the payments traced to their spy’s crypto wallet: