‘$70,000’ CEO Dan Price accused of raping model as she tried to sleep
By: Thomas B.
The “$70,000 CEO” Dan Price’s abrupt resignation from the helm of Gravity Payments this week came as he faced a new allegation of purportedly raping a woman, according to a bombshell report.
Price, who made international headlines after he slashed his own pay to $70,000 while raising minimum wage at the company, resigned as CEO this week amid reports that he had grabbed a 26-year-old woman by the throat after she rejected his advances.
But Price’s resignation came shortly after he was contacted for a response to a rape allegation, according to a report late Thursday.
Police in Palm Springs, California, have recommended that Price face a charge of rape of a drugged victim. The executive has not yet been charged in connection to the alleged incident.
Kacie Margis, a model and artist, told that she and Price were dating for about three months when the alleged rape occurred during a trip to Palm Springs. Price allegedly booted Margis out of their hotel room for hours so that he could take a phone call, despite the fact that she was only wearing a bikini and a cover-up.
Later that day, Price purportedly grew angry when she rebuffed his attempt to kiss her.
“He said it is so hard being him in the world because of his intelligence,” Margis said.
After their argument, Margis returned to the hotel room and took a cannabis edible. Price purportedly entered the room and attempted to initiate sex, but she rebuffed him.
Margis told police that as she drifted to sleep, she felt Price penetrate her even after she repulsed his advances. She “worried he would kill her if she tried to stop him,”.
“Did you just rape me?” Margis said she asked Price, who denied he had assaulted her.
Margis texted a friend that she was “shaking so bad and could hardly speak.” She added that Price had “looked me dead in the eyes and said what I know happened didn’t happen.”
Team said its report was based on Margis’ account, the police report from the incident and conversations with three individuals whom she had contacted shortly after the alleged rape occurred.
The model said she first learned about Price in 2020 after coming across his viral social media posts championing workers’ rights and corporate responsibility. When she liked one of Price’s Instagram posts in 2020, he messaged her, “Happy Valentine’s Day beautiful!”
Margis told that she initially ignored the message but eventually responded early last year. The two began talking regularly and Price eventually flew Margis out to Seattle to meet him.
When contacted about the rape allegation, Price denied any wrongdoing and said he “never physically or sexually abused anyone.”
He added that “the other accusations of inappropriate behavior towards women in this story are simply false.”
Team has reached out to Price and to Gravity Payments for comment.
Price alluded to the allegations against him in a resignation statement earlier this week.
“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,” Price said. “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.”
Price, who has built a massive following on social media while touting workers’ rights, faces multiple allegations of misconduct.
This includes another allegation from a Seattle-based fitness trainer named Serena Jowers, who alleges Price began watching porn during their third date and later pressured her into having sex.
Jowers and three other women who spoke to team alleged that he filmed them without consent.
Another woman, identified only as a former girlfriend of Price, alleged that he had sex with her in the middle of the night on multiple occasions without her consent.
The report also contains other bombshell allegations – including a claim that an idea that purportedly came from Gravity’s employees to buy Price a Tesla as a thank-you for his worker-first policies had actually originated with one of the CEO’s top lieutenants.
5 years ago today our employees bought me a Tesla to thank me for cutting my CEO pay 94% to pay them at least $70k.
Since then I paid them back with raises close to $100k and they paid me back again by growing the company.
Take care of employees and they will take care of you. pic.twitter.com/EglpL4M2oF
— Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) July 14, 2021
Additionally, Price is alleged to have tapped a ghostwriter, Mike Rosenberg, to build his social media brand.
Price was charged earlier this year with misdemeanor assault and reckless driving after he allegedly attempted to kiss the woman following a business meeting and then grabbed her by the throat when she blocked his advances.
After the alleged altercation, Price allegedly performed “doughnuts” in his Tesla while she was still in the car. Price pleaded not guilty to the charge in May and has denied wrongdoing.
In 2015, Bloomberg reported Price’s ex-wife Kristie Colon gave a TEDx talk in which she, without naming Price, alleged that he had physically assaulted her.
Price rose to fame in 2015 after declaring he would cut his own $1 million salary to $70,000. The tech CEO said the money would allow him to raise Gravity Payments’ minimum wage to $70,000 within a three-year period, up from $48,000.
