SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle CEO who announced in 2015 that he was taking himself a drastic pay cut to cover the cost of big pay rises for his employees has announced his resignation.
Dan Price, the embattled CEO of credit card company Gravity Payments, resigned on Wednesday, the Seattle Times reported.
Price stunned his 100-plus workers when he told them he was cutting his salary from around $1 million to $70,000 and using company profits to ensure everyone there would be making at least that much within three years.
“My number one priority is getting our people to work for the best company in the world, but being here has become a distraction.” Price wrote in a statement on Twitter. He founded the company 18 years ago.
“I must also step away from these duties to fully focus on fighting false allegations against me,” he wrote. “I do not go anywhere.”
Earlier this year, Seattle prosecutors charged Price with assault against a woman and reckless driving. Prosecutors say Price attempted to force-kiss a woman. He pleaded not guilty in May; the case is not yet closed.
Price, 38, has also found himself in other legal troubles. His brother Lucas sued him in 2015 alleging that Dan Price overpaid himself. A King County judge ruled that Dan had not violated Lucas’ rights as a minority shareholder.
Allegations that Price molested his ex-wife, Kristie Colon, also surfaced that year. A Bloomberg report reported on a TEDx talk by Colon in October 2015, in which she described being hit and waterboarded by her ex without naming Price. Price told Bloomberg that those events “never happened.”
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