Tech CEO Faces Assault Allegations After Gaining Fame for Paying $70K

• Dan Price, the tech CEO who rose to fame for paying employees a $70K minimum salary, resigned Wednesday.
• He faces sexual assault and violence allegations from multiple women, detailed in a report in the New York Times.
• Price says the allegations are false and he is resigning to “focus full time” on fighting them.

Dan Price, the Seattle-based tech CEO once lauded a hero for raising his employees’ pay, announced he resigned from his post on Wednesday to “fight false allegations.”

Price faces a slew of sexual assault allegations from many women, including his ex-wife, alleging that he used social media to launder his public persona and avoid reproach, the New York Times reports.

Price is the cofounder and now-former CEO of Seattle-based Gravity Payments, a credit card processing company. He first rose to prominence in 2015 when he announced he would slash his salary by $1 million and raise all of his employees’ pay to a minimum of $70,000 per year.

Price’s announcement earned him fans on social media, where he has more than 700,000 followers, and in legacy media. He has appeared on shows like The Daily Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show, as well as on various news programs and sites, including Insider.

The Times reports that Price’s internet fame helped enable a pattern of abuse involving alleged rape and choking of multiple women.

Dan Price could not be immediately reached for comment by Insider, but on Wednesday night, he issued a statement declaring his resignation, saying he needs to “focus full time on fighting false accusations made against me.”

In the statement posted to Twitter, he told his followers, “I’m not going anywhere.”