CEO who raised minimum wage to $96k denies ex-wife’s claims he beat, waterboarded her

THE high-flying CEO who became a celebrity by slashing his pay to raise his employees’ wage to $96,000 is coming unstuck.

THE high-flying CEO who became a worldwide celebrity by slashing his $1.3 million ($US1.1 million) pay packet to raise his employees’ minimum wage to $96,000 ($US70,000), is coming unstuck.

Dan Price, the Brad Pitt-lookalike founder of Seattle-based credit card processing firm Gravity Payments, has denied allegations he assaulted his ex-wife, Kristie Colon.

According to an investigation by Bloomberg Businessweek, Ms Colon made the claims in a recent TEDx talk, which will be published online after December 7.

Ms Colon, speaking at the University of Kentucky in October about the power of writing to overcome trauma, allegedly read from a journal entry she wrote in 2006 about her then-husband.

“He got mad at me for ignoring him and grabbed me and shook me again,” she said. “He also threw me to the ground and got on top of me. He started punching me in the stomach and slapped me across the face. I was shaking so bad.”

According to Bloomberg, later in the talk Ms Colon recalled once locking herself in her car, “afraid he was going to body-slam me into the ground again or waterboard me in our upstairs bathroom like he had done before”.

Ms Colon later tweeted a link to the article, saying: “That one time my TEDxUKY talk showed up at the very end of a Bloomberg article ...”

Mr Price, who since his announcement in April has reportedly signed a $682,350 ($US500,000) book deal, landed countless speaking gigs for which he charges as much as $27,290 ($US20,000), and been courted by TV producers, denied the claims put to him by the Bloomberg reporter.

“The events that you described never happened,” he said.

In a later statement to The Guardian, Mr Price again denied the allegations through a company spokesman. “We’ve been floored at the attention our story has gotten over the past year, and inspired by the millions all around the globe who have engaged and shared their stories with us,” the statement said.

“Unfortunately, people in the public eye are subject to speculation and criticism. Sometimes it’s fair, other times it isn’t. The recent story in Businessweek contained reckless accusations and baseless speculations that are unequivocally false.

“As a company, we’ve faced many challenges in our history. Each time we’ve banded together, worked hard and focused on our mission to help our community businesses, we have eventually emerged stronger. This has been a truly memorable year in many ways. We’re looking forward to working harder than ever in pursuit of our mission.”

Mr Price is also facing a costly lawsuit brought by his older brother and 30 per cent owner of Gravity Payments, Lucas Price, who alleges Dan was paying himself too much in the first place with his $1.3 million ($US1.1 million) salary. According to Bloomberg, CEOs of comparable companies earned between $484,470 ($US355,000) and $641,410 ($US470,000).

Mr Price claimed the lawsuit was in reaction to the generous pay increase, but Bloomberg revealed the initial suit had been filed in March, well before the announcement, suggesting it was actually the other way around.

In August, he claimed he was “struggling to make ends meet” after slashing his own pay and had been forced to rent out his home. The decision also cost him a number of employees, who were unhappy that less skilled workers ended up with bigger salary hikes than those who had been with the company longer.

“He gave raises to people who ha the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump,” Gravity’s financial manager Maisey McMaster told The New York Times.