Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz surfaces in Dubai as Rippling struggles to serve lawsuit
Bouaziz, his father the CFO, and Deel’s general counsel are all now in the UAE, complicating Rippling’s lawsuit.
The international legal drama between payroll unicorns Deel and Rippling has taken a new turn after TechCrunch reported that Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz is currently in Dubai—a revelation that may complicate efforts by Irish courts to serve him in the company’s ongoing corporate espionage case.
Bouaziz, who had previously listed his location as Tel Aviv on LinkedIn, has remained elusive for French bailiffs attempting to serve him with legal papers. The case, filed by U.S.-based Rippling in Ireland’s High Court, centers on extraordinary allegations that Israeli-founded Deel orchestrated an internal spying operation through a former Rippling employee.
Adding to the intrigue, Deel’s CFO—Philippe Bouaziz, Alex’s father—currently lists his location as the United Arab Emirates on his X (formerly Twitter) profile. Deel’s general counsel, Asif Malik, was also earlier revealed in court to be based in the UAE, after attempts to serve him in the UK failed. That places three of Deel’s top decision-makers in Dubai or elsewhere in the Emirates, raising questions about whether the country has become a safe haven from European and U.S. legal process.
Rippling has not yet succeeded in serving any of the three with court documents. According to court filings, the company may now seek permission to serve the defendants via email—an extraordinary move typically reserved for cases where personal service is deemed impracticable.
The underlying lawsuit accuses Deel of paying a former Rippling payroll manager, Keith O’Brien, $6,000 a month to act as a covert mole. O’Brien, who has since turned whistleblower, admitted under oath to sending confidential documents to Deel and claimed he was instructed by senior Deel officials to file falsified law enforcement reports. His home in North Dublin is now under 24-hour security, reportedly funded by Rippling.
Deel has denied wrongdoing but has yet to file a formal legal response.
Justice Mark Sanfey, who is overseeing the proceedings, recently ruled not to penalize O’Brien despite his admission that he destroyed his phone with an axe and threw it into a drain. Sanfey said O’Brien’s cooperation and the threats he received justified leniency, but he noted the breach as “blatant.”
Now, with Deel’s top brass apparently out of reach in Dubai, Rippling’s legal strategy enters its most complex phase. The case pits two of the fastest-growing companies in the global HR tech space against each other in a dispute that increasingly resembles a geopolitical thriller, with executive movements tracked across continents and court orders chasing shadows in the desert.
