New banking records prove Deel paid thief who stole trade secrets from Rippling

Newly unsealed documents prove Deel directly funded payments to the thief who stole trade secrets from Rippling for Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz. The documents on file in federal court show how Deel used Revolut to transfer funds from its corporate account directly to the wife of its COO — and how, just 56 seconds later, she immediately transferred the exact amount to Deel’s thief. 

Deel officially recorded this illegal scheme as an "expense," now raising questions about the integrity of Deel’s accounting practices and what other spending Deel might also try classifying as legitimate business expenses. 

The total amount Deel transferred through Alba Basha, the wife of Deel COO Dan Westgarth, was $6,000, with subsequent payments made to their thief via crypto to leave “no trace.” As a former compliance lead at Robinhood, she’d presumably know better than to be the conduit for an illegal payment.

This evidence was obtained from Revolut in Rippling’s lawsuit against Deel, and the court filing states: “The records involve only two transactions: Deel corporate funds entering Basha’s account and immediately exiting to pay a corporate spy. Her account balance before and after: $8.16. This is not personal financial activity. It is money laundering.”

This new evidence raises several questions, including: 

• Why would Deel need to launder these funds through its COO’s wife via Revolut, if not to obscure its tracks?

• Who at Deel instructed Deel Ltd to make this bribery payment and classify it as a business expense? 

• How was this bribery payment classified in Deel’s financial statements? Was it an R&D expense because of the product roadmap information they stole? Was it a sales and marketing expense because of the extensive exfiltration of information about Rippling’s customers, pricing, and competitive dynamics vs Deel?

• What was disclosed about the bribery payment to Deel’s external financial auditors, their new CFO and President Joe Kauffman, new General Counsel DeAnn Work, new Chief Compliance Officer Anthony Luis Rodriguez, or to their most recent investors?

• Will Deel, its new CFO Joe Kauffman, and the chair of their audit committee revise their audited financial statements?

• How were the subsequent crypto bribery payments funded? Are other C-suite family members and affiliates receiving payments from Deel?

This single document is one of the very first discovery productions in the Rippling-Deel litigation — eight months after Deel’s theft, which targeted Rippling’s CRM data and product roadmap, was first revealed. Deel has fought hard to slow or block discovery, including from Revolut.

This document was initially classified as confidential and could not be revealed in the public record — hidden behind redactions and blacklines. Rippling had to fight to unseal it, and, on Monday, the magistrate judge ordered the information to be revealed publicly, declaring "All of the [Revolut] customers at issue have significant connections to this case: (1) Defendant Deel, Inc.’s corporate affiliate Lets Deel Ltd, (2) Alba Basha, who is married to Defendant Daniel Westgarth, a Deel executive; and (3) Keith O’Brien, a former Rippling employee who allegedly spied on Rippling for Deel...Nor is any significant privacy interest apparent when it comes to the transactions at the heart of this case: a payment from Lets Deel Ltd to Basha, followed by a corresponding payment from Basha to O’Brien.”

Since being sued by Rippling in March, Deel has been in clean-up mode:

• Earlier this month, Deel hired a new President and CFO with CEO experience, replacing Phillippe Bouaziz, who is a named RICO defendant in this lawsuit

• Deel hired a new General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer (who reports directly to the board), and Chief Risk Officer

• Soon after being sued and the confession of its thief became public, Deel was caught surveilling the thief through unlicensed private investigators in Ireland

We’re glad these smoking gun documents are finally becoming public alongside additional evidence that will assist in bringing unlawful conduct to justice.