Alleged Tech Spy Says He Was Paid in Ethereum to Snoop for Rival Firm
The post Alleged Tech Spy Says He Was Paid in Ethereum to Snoop for Rival Firm appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
An Irish man has admitted to accepting $5000 per month in cryptocurrency to spy on payroll management company Rippling on behalf of its competitor, Deel, in a Hollywood-esque corporate espionage scheme that captured global media attention and nearly led him to flee to Dubai. In an affidavit, signed on April 1 and filed in Dublin court, Keith O’Brien alleged he became a corporate spy for Deel last September, while he was still an employee of Rippling. Between September 2024 and March 2025, O’Brien allegedly used Telegram to feed Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz information about his employer’s corporate strategy and customer insights “multiple times a day every workday” and sometimes on the weekends, according to the sworn statement. “[Deel’s CEO] suggested that I remain at Rippling and become a ‘spy’ for Deel, and I recall him specifically mentioning James Bond,” O’Brien said in the statement. Deel executives paid O’Brien $5,000 in Ethereum per month for the espionage, telling their mole the payment method “would leave no trace,” according to O’Brien. The self-confessed spy said he reluctantly received the tokens in his Blockchain.com wallet, where he would liquify the funds and transfer them to his bank account because he was “concerned about cryptocurrency fluctuation.” The admission comes a few weeks after Rippling sued Deel in a federal court in San Francisco for allegedly orchestrating “a calculated and unlawful corporate espionage scheme.” The legal drama marks the latest face-off between the HR software companies, which each notched valuations north of $10 billion a few years ago by specializing in solutions for managing remote work forces that have become less common in the post-pandemic era. The lawsuit also comes as the crypto industry is trying to rehabilitate its image, pushing back against popular narratives that assert digital assets are favored by bad actors seeking…
Filed under: News - @ April 4, 2025 12:27 am