Dan Price.Photo: Hutton Supancic/Getty
Dan Price, the Gravity Payments CEO who made headlines when he raised his company’s minimum salary to $70,000, resigned on Wednesday as he faces multiple abuse allegations.
In a statement posted toTwitter, Price said he needed to “focus full time on fighting false accusations” and announced that Tammi Kroll, the company’s chief operating officer, would take over as CEO.
“My No. 1 priority is for our employees to work for the best company in the world, but my presence has become a distraction here,” he wrote. “I also need to step aside from these duties to focus full time on fighting false accusations made against me. I’m not going anywhere.”
“We have already obtained evidence that contradicts key details of the police report and raises serious doubts about the complainant’s credibility,” Price’s attorney, Mark Middaugh, wrote in an email to theSeattle Timesin April. “Mr. Price respects the legal process and is confident that he will be vindicated in court.”
Price pleaded not guilty in May, per theSeattle Times. A hearing is set for Sept. 30, theWall Street Journalreported.
Dan Price.Albert L. Ortega/Getty
Price has also been accused, but not yet charged, of raping a woman he was dating as she attempted to sleep in their hotel room in Palm Springs, California in April 2021, theNew York Timesreported. Kacie Margis, a model and artist, said that she had been locked out of their room for hours because Price needed privacy for a call, the outlet reported. Upon re-entering the room, Margis — who had been regularly using cannabis to combat insomnia she suffered after being at a mass shooting during a 2017 music festival in Las Vegas — took an edible to sleep, she told police, per the newspaper.
Citing interviews with over 50 people, documents and police reports, theNew York Timesconcluded that “Mr. Price’s internet fame has enabled a pattern of abuse in his personal life and hostile behavior at his company.” The allegations include Price secretly recording sexual interactions with women without their consent.
Responding to the allegations earlier this week, Price told theNew York Timeshe “never physically or sexually abused anyone” and claimed “other accusations of inappropriate behavior towards women in this story are simply false.”
As for his behavior as CEO, Price told the newspaper before his resignation, “Making Gravity an outstanding place to work is my top priority, and I believe I’m achieving that goal.”
Price, his attorney and Gravity Payments did not immediately return PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
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An attorney for the University of Kentucky, where the speech was filmed, said in a statement toEntrepreneurat the time: “Mr. Price’s representatives notified the University of Kentucky that they believed some of the content in the video talk in question was defamatory. In light of this concern, the university chose to exercise its discretion not to post the video. The university does not presently have possession of the video. The university takes no position on whether the content was, in fact, defamatory.”
“There’s a number where if you make less than that, it’s going to hurt you, your well-being, in a major way,” Price toldPEOPLEin 2020. “For the vast majority of people out there, their health and well-being are harmed if they’re making less than $70,000 a year.”
After Gravity Payments acquired an Idaho-based company, Price implemented the same raisefor the new employeesin 2019.
In 2021, Price claimed his company’s revenue had tripled since 2015.
“Six years later and our revenue has tripled. More importantly, our staff and company are thriving in various ways,” he PEOPLE. “[We have a] 10-time increase in new homes bought and babies born. Employees have increased savings and paid down debts.”
source: people.com
