Last summer Dan Price, a Seattle CEO famous for setting the minimum annual pay at Gravity Payments at $70,000 was sued for overpaying himself by Lucas Price, his brother and the co-founder of the company.
The story Dan Price was feeding the public is that of a selfless CEO who willingly cut his $1,1 million pay to raise salaries of 70 of his employees. In his own words, he was doing the best he could for those who he was leading. Two weeks later after he stated he was raising salaries, his brother sued him. Lucas said that Dan made his Robin Hood-style act just to cut his own salary that was abnormally high in the first place. It is not clear if the lawsuit was initiated before or after the big raise. Dan Price said he had not been aware of the suit until after two weeks after his ‘big raise’ statement. But as Bloomberg article has it, the lawsuit, according to the court filing, was served well before that.
More disturbing news came from Dan’s ex-wife, Kristin Colon, who said she was abused by her husband, beaten and waterboarded. Price denied all the accusations and said that none of it ever happened.
The media is exploding over the Dan Price’s case. Is this Brad Pitt look-a-like a Robin Hood of SEOs and falsely accused good man? Or has he raised the salaries because of the lawsuit, to increase his financial leverage in the company? And what about all the things his ex-wife says?
This case has all the chances to be settled out of court. Although, if it goes to trial as scheduled, we can expect to hear a lot about it next May.
I worked in a company where we were told that no was getting a raise. But when they said no one the company meant the employees not any of the “higher up” people. They didn’t care about us. So I truly believe that Dan Price raised the pay for better leverage for himself. He must have sensed something was going to happen soon.
Seems pretty fishy to me. If he really did beat his wife. Do you think he would admit it? He’s buying himself some time instead of instantly being locked up. Why would he do this to his brother and family? It just goes to show you that you can’t trust anyone, even family. I’ll be paying attention to this case to see what the final verdict ends up to be.
I am sorry but most men and women who are guilty will not admit to it. It is a sad truth and domestic violence is a HUGE problem in the United States. People just sweep it under the rug and pretend it doesn’t happen. I was in an abusive relationship once, and he denied ever doing anything to me. I know 3 other women who were as well, two of which were married to their abusers. They never admit to it and 8 times out of 10, get away with it.