In a plot that feels more like the screenplay of a corporate thriller than a courtroom reality, two of Silicon Valley’s most celebrated HR tech unicorns—Rippling and Deel—are now locked in a high-stakes legal war involving secret communications, crypto payments, deleted devices, and an ex-em

A lawsuit filed by Rippling accuses Deel, a $12 billion HR tech unicorn, of orchestrating corporate espionage and trade-secret theft. The complaint alleges that Deel cultivated a Rippling employee as a corporate spy, who conducted thousands of unauthorized searches to extract sensitive business inte