Inside the Nasty Feud Between Deel and Rippling That Became a Spy DramaInside the Nasty Feud Between Deel and Rippling That Became a Spy DramaArt by Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images)
The Big Read

Inside the Nasty Feud Between Deel and Rippling That Became a Spy Drama

An alleged mole inside Rippling suddenly got very interested in a reporter for The Information.

By
Michael Roddan

Until this week, I didn’t know Keith O’Brien existed. The payroll compliance manager—and now accused corporate spy—was suddenly very interested in me.

O’Brien’s curiosity was piqued last month when I was writing a story about a bitter feud between his company, Rippling, and its archrival, Deel. O’Brien allegedly searched for my name in Rippling’s Slack channels 15 times. He searched for the name of this publication, The Information, 31 times.

O’Brien appeared in an Irish courtroom Wednesday. He is accused in a lawsuit filed Monday in a federal court in California of spying for Deel from inside Rippling. The court ordered him to hand over his phone. Instead, he allegedly tried to flush it down a toilet. In court, he said he had destroyed it. O’Brien couldn’t be reached for comment.