Deel alleges Rippling ran a secret campaign to destroy rivals
New filings accuse Rippling of 'snake oil' marketing, tax fraud, and hiring corporate moles.
The escalating feud between two of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing HR startups has entered a new and even more explosive phase. On Friday, Israeli-American payroll unicorn Deel filed a lawsuit in Delaware, accusing rival Rippling of orchestrating a far-reaching campaign of defamation, unfair competition, and corporate sabotage.
The civil complaint, lodged in Delaware’s Superior Court, paints a sweeping picture of what Deel describes as a "longstanding pattern" of misconduct by Rippling, alleging that the U.S. company, under CEO Parker Conrad, employed aggressive tactics — from embedding moles inside competitors to spreading false rumors and engaging in "frivolous regulatory complaints" — all aimed at damaging Deel's business.
"Enough is enough," Deel wrote in a statement announcing the lawsuit, saying it would no longer tolerate Rippling’s “attacks on competitors and former employees.”
The lawsuit marks Deel's most aggressive move yet in a corporate drama that has already rocked the tech world, pitting two multibillion-dollar companies against each other across multiple jurisdictions.
Rippling initially fired the opening shot earlier this year, filing a lawsuit in Ireland accusing Deel and its CEO, Alex Bouaziz, of orchestrating a covert espionage campaign through a former Rippling employee, Keith O'Brien. O'Brien later turned whistleblower, admitting under oath that he secretly passed confidential documents to Deel while allegedly being paid $6,000 per month.
In a dramatic twist, Deel's new lawsuit now seeks to flip the narrative, portraying O'Brien as a traumatized whistleblower targeted by Rippling. Deel alleges that Rippling retaliated against O'Brien to the point that he falsely implicated Deel in his affidavit. According to Deel, contemporaneous emails — though not disclosed in full — suggest that Rippling exerted improper pressure on O'Brien.
The lawsuit further claims that Rippling inserted its own insider inside Deel and attempted to solicit confidential information from other employees — a tactic Deel says undermines fair competition in the HR tech sector.
Allegations of fraud, misconduct, and "snake oil" marketing
Beyond espionage claims, Deel's complaint levels sweeping accusations against Rippling’s business practices. Among them: alleged payroll tax fraud, violations of international sanctions regimes, and systematic misrepresentation to customers and investors.
Deel accuses Rippling of defrauding employees and clients by improperly handling taxes and claims that whistleblowers had informed Irish authorities about Rippling’s financial misconduct relating to payments to Russia, Belarus, Iran, and Syria.
The lawsuit also alleges that Rippling engaged in a coordinated smear campaign against Deel, hiring PR consultants and lobbyists to push negative stories and regulatory complaints. Deel pointed to Rippling’s own marketing, which in the past reportedly referred to Deel’s services as “snake oil” — part of what Deel says was a broader effort to tarnish its reputation.
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Complicating matters further, the key executives at the center of the dispute remain difficult to reach.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz is in Dubai — a detail that has frustrated Rippling’s efforts to serve him with legal papers in Ireland’s High Court. A Deel spokesperson told TechCrunch on Friday that “Alex lives in Israel. He was in Dubai for a few days for Passover with his family, something he’s done for the past several years."
Bouaziz’s father, Deel CFO Philippe Bouaziz, and Deel’s fintech attorney Asif Malik are also believed to be based in the UAE, raising questions about whether the company's leadership is strategically placing itself beyond easy reach of European and U.S. courts.
Rippling CEO Parker Conrad was quick to seize on Deel’s latest legal maneuver. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: "Nowhere does Deel dispute our central allegation – that @Bouazizalex personally recruited a spy to steal Rippling’s trade secrets, and personally directed the theft."
Deel, for its part, has filed multiple motions to try to move Rippling’s lawsuit out of California and into Ireland, including a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and an anti-SLAPP motion, which argues Rippling’s lawsuit infringes on protected conduct.
A corporate war with no end in sight
With parallel lawsuits now active on both sides of the Atlantic, and with both companies publicly trading accusations of corporate malfeasance, the legal battle between Deel and Rippling shows no signs of abating.
The stakes are enormous: Deel, valued at over $12 billion, serves more than 35,000 customers globally. Rippling, valued at $13.5 billion, has emerged as a major competitor, particularly in the fiercely contested HR and payroll tech market.
As the courtroom drama unfolds, it is becoming clear that this is no ordinary business dispute. It is a high-stakes, international war for dominance — one that could reshape not only the future of two fast-growing unicorns, but also the contours of the global HR software industry itself.
