Facing sanctions for obstructing court orders, Deel finally unveils a defense – its spy was paid for “living expenses” & sourcing “high-value watches”

Deel’s defense? The cash was really for the spy’s future “living expenses.” Deel didn’t actually ask for the stolen information, it just showed up on CEO Alex Bouaziz’s Telegram feed.

And perhaps the most interesting plot twist: Deel says this wasn’t an espionage operation but, really, about helping the spy through financial hardship, which is why CFO Philippe Bouaziz set up the spy with a side hustle with his pal brokering luxury watches in exchange for monthly crypto payments.

As the saying goes, let’s follow the money:

1. Deel admits the initial $6,000 payment to the spy was agreed to by CEO Alex Bouaziz, approved by dad CFO Philippe Bouaziz, and arranged by COO Dan Westgarth – who transferred the funds through his wife’s Revolut account. Deel admits that it deliberately obscured the fact that this payment actually came from Deel.

2. There is no dispute that the spy then received monthly crypto payments in amounts that (coincidentally?) match the initial $6,000 payment from Deel that was routed through its COO’s wife.

3. These monthly crypto payments stopped after the spy was caught.

Recall that the spy – after a judge warned him he could face criminal contempt of court if he did not tell the truth – submitted a sworn confession that he was recruited and paid by Deel to steal trade secrets from Rippling.

What does Alex Bouaziz, the ringleader of the Bouaziz Racketeering Enterprise, have to say about all this? Well, Alex does admit the spy sent him “multiple” messages via Telegram – but says he didn’t look at “most” of the stolen material. Alex does recall there were “some messages about customers that were leaving Deel to go to Rippling, or that were considering whether to leave Rippling to go to Deel.” And he also remembers asking the spy “whether Rippling had certain product capabilities relating to French payroll systems.”

See more from our sanctions filing from today:

The Defendants admit that CFO Bouaziz introduced O’Brien to “A.D.” (aka “the Watchman”), the individual described in O’Brien’s affidavit who transferred approximately $6,000 in crypto to O’Brien each month after Deel’s initial $6,000 payment. See Rothstein Decl. Ex. 9 at 7; Ex. 10 at 9–10; O’Brien Aff. ¶¶ 12–16. They claim that “A.D.” is a dealer in second-hand luxury watches. Their story is that O’Brien asked for more money after Deel gave him $6,000 for “living expenses”; that Philippe said “no”; but that, as a favor to O’Brien, Philippe introduced him to “A.D.” because he thought that O’Brien—a payroll manager with alleged money problems—could earn money on the side by referring luxury-watch-buying opportunities. Under Defendants’ version of these events, it is a coincidence that the fee that O’Brien negotiated at arm’s length with “A.D.” is a monthly payment in the same amount as Deel’s $6,000 payment in November 2024, and that the payments ran from December 2024 until March 2025, when the Rippling uncovered the spying scheme.

Where does this leave us?

A federal judge last month rejected Deel’s efforts to dismiss our RICO and trade secrets theft case. We are continuing discovery and heading towards trial.

Deel now faces sanctions proceedings for obstructing the evidence-gathering process and defying court orders.

Deel also today voluntarily dismissed its sham Delaware complaint filed for PR purposes in retaliation for this lawsuit.

For more details, our full sanctions motion is available here.