Price denies ex-wife’s abuse allegation

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly spell Kristie Colón’s name.

Nampa native Dan Price, who made headlines in April when he raised the minimum pay at his Seattle company to $70,000 a year, is drawing attention again because of a Bloomberg Businessweek story that raises questions about Price’s personal life and his decision to raise workers’ pay while cutting his own.

Price’s ex-wife, Kristie Colón, recorded a TEDx Talk in Kentucky that describes domestic abuse when they were married, Bloomberg Businessweek said. The magazine quotes her reading from her diary and saying, “He started punching me in the stomach and slapped me across the face.”

Price told the magazine he was surprised when it read him quotes from her talk, which has not yet been released publicly, “The events you described never happened,” he said.

The magazine also said Price was served with a notice of a lawsuit his brother, Lucas, planned to file against him before he slashed his $1.1 million pay and announced the employee raises — not afterward, as had been previously reported. That appears to counter Price’s statements implying the lawsuit was a response to his decision. “Price announced his magnanimous act a month after his brother sued him for, in essence, being greedy,” the magazine wrote.

The brothers are partners in the company, Gravity Payments, which processes credit cards. Dan Price is Gravity’s CEO.

The magazine published its report Tuesday. The Statesman left messages Wednesday seeking comment from Dan Price, Colón and Ron Price, the Price brothers’ father and a well-known business consultant in the Treasure Valley. They were not immediately returned.

The Statesman interviewed Dan and Ron Price in December 2014 when Dan Price made the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Price denies ex-wife’s abuse allegation."