The Indo Daily: The HR spy who axed his phone – Irishman caught in ‘biggest corporate espionage case of the century’

Indo Daily

A spy trail of secret messages, codewords and a phone smashed with an axe in an extraordinary tale of alleged corporate espionage is unfolding in front of the High Court.

The story of Dublin man Keith O’Brien made international headlines when his employer, a major US HR services firm, set a “trap” to identify how confidential information was being leaked – and the saga is not over yet. His 13-page confession was read to the High Court last week, where he told how he spied on his multinational employer for a rival for a fee of over €5,000 a month. That is, until he was caught.

In an affidavit filed with the High Court, Keith O’Brien, who was global payroll compliance manager of Rippling, said he was induced into spying and passing sensitive company information to the CEO of rival US firm Deel Inc.

The admission was disclosed during an application to join Deel, its French chief executive Alex Bouaziz and two solicitors working for Deel – Italian national Andrea…