Rippling’s efforts to serve Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz have been significantly complicated by the fact that Bouaziz and his lawyer are now in Dubai, according to internal correspondence seen by TechCrunch.
The UAE is a country with a reputation of being a safe haven for those wanting to avoid extradition.
Rippling is trying to serve Bouaziz as part of its blockbuster lawsuit in Ireland against Deel. But French bailiffs weren’t able to find Bouaziz at an apartment in Paris in his native France last week.
The suit accuses Bouaziz of bribing a Rippling employee in Ireland, Keith O’Brien, and the affidavit from the alleged “spy” reads like it’s out of a movie.
And Bouaziz isn’t the only one in the UAE. Deel’s legal director Asif Malik has moved to Dubai, Rippling’s legal team said in a court hearing last week. Malik is a U.K. citizen who Rippling is also trying to serve. He’s the same lawyer who allegedly offered to relocate O’Brien, Deel’s alleged spy, to Dubai and pay his legal costs in exchange for refusing to cooperate with Rippling, according to O’Brien’s affidavit.
The UAE’s legal environment makes things like extraditing people very difficult according to European authorities, although the Gulf country has told media that it’s committed to working with international partners on law enforcement and recently stepped up extraditions of some long-wanted criminals.
Bouaziz’s father, the CFO of Deel, who O’Brien claims oversaw payments to him and knew of the scheme, currently lists his location as the UAE on X, too.
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Deel, along with Alex and Philippe Bouaziz, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Deel has responded to Rippling’s lawsuit denying all wrongdoing. Rippling didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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