(Bloomberg) – Deel, a $12 billion human resources startup for venture capital investors, lost its communications director as the company found itself involved in a corporate spy scandal involving its CEO.
Elisabeth Diana has been resigning from her post last week since 2021, a person familiar with the matter said, and the company said it was unwilling to make sure to discuss private information. She previously served as head of communications for Instagram and served as vice president of Meta Platforms Inc., before calling Facebook.
Diana declined to comment. A Deel representative said: “We thank Elisabeth for her work at Deel and wish her the best of her next effort.”
Deel has engaged in an escalating legal battle with rival Rippling, the launch of the commercial software launched by Parker Conrad, which is currently in talks for talks at a $16 billion valuation.
Last month, Rippling sued Deel, accusing it of paying a corrugated employee to monitor the company – when face-to-face, the defendant spy locked himself in the bathroom and eventually fled the building. In a statement, Deel called the allegations “basically unfounded.”
The show intensified earlier this week when a former corrugated employee named Keith O’Brien said in an affidavit filed with the Irish High Court that Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz asked him to monitor Boglin. O’Brien said the CEO recruited him into a espionage that compared with James Bond, who was paid about $6,000 a month to share the secrets of the Ripple Company.
O’Brien said he talked to Bouaziz several times a day and when Bouazi discovered his identity, Bouaziz encouraged him to flee to Dubai with his family. O’Brien also said that in order to cover up the spy evidence suggested by Deel’s legal director, he smashed his phone with an axe and placed the debris in his mother-in-law’s house.
A Deel spokesman said in a statement that the company is preparing to dismiss O’Brien and Ripple’s allegations. “It is evident from the history of the legal, political and PR smear movement that Rippling coordinated over the years that their business approach is driven by litigation and strategy,” the spokesman said. “Dell is looking forward to a day in court when the allegations brought by Poppling and O’Brien will prove unfounded.”
“What Deel did was so rude, it was clear that they had to open their own spies now,” said Alex Spiro, a corrugated legal counsel.
Until recently, Diana publicly defended Deel as she served as communications director. This includes pushing back a civil lawsuit accusing the platform of money laundering. “The complaint is unfounded,” she wrote on X in January, and Deer applied to dismiss the charges.
Deel investors, including General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue Management, did not respond to requests for comment.
Rippling plans to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in a new funding round that is still in its early stages, according to Bloomberg. Rippling is backed by venture capital firms including Kleiner Perkins and Greenoaks Capital.
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