Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Chris Wilson, the founder and CEO of top Republican polling firm WPA Intelligence, was fired after company audits found he likely used firm money to pay for personal expenses, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
It comes after his firm\u2019s CFO was fired and charged with embezzlement earlier this year, a charge that she denies. That led people on WPAi\u2019s leadership team to start looking into how Wilson had spent company money, according to the people.<\/p>\n
Two outside auditing firms were hired to conduct investigations, and two business consultants were later brought on to restructure the company and restore its profitability, according to the people. Wilson, who has worked on behalf of presidential efforts for Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz, was fired on Dec. 5, according to the people, and is no longer listed on the company\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The audits of the company\u2019s finances found that over the past several years Wilson used firm money to pay for items that were likely for personal expenses, such as vacations, health charges and the use of a nanny, according to five people with direct knowledge of the situation. Wilson at times used WPAi\u2019s money to pay large portions of his personal credit card bill, which he would also use for company business, according to two of the people. The people declined to share the audit with POLITICO.<\/p>\n The people in this story were granted anonymity to disclose sensitive personnel matters.<\/p>\n Ryan Leonard, a lawyer representing Wilson, called the allegations behind Wilson\u2019s firing \u201cdefamatory and false.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChris\u2019s former business partners at WPAi at all times had complete transparency into all aspects of the business, including every single business transaction,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cThe timing of these allegations is particularly surprising given that, following completion of a recent audit, Chris was actually given a raise. While Chris recently left the company following the election, he wishes his former team members at WPAi all the best.\u201d<\/p>\n In a text message to POLITICO before he was fired from WPAi, Wilson said he \u201cwas confident that my record of ethical leadership and professional achievement speaks for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you run a company, business and personal sometimes become intertwined,\u201d he said, noting that he paid three full paychecks for all WPAi employees at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic out of his personal bank account so that he didn\u2019t have to lay anyone off. (He said he didn\u2019t reimburse himself after.)<\/p>\n WPAi covered some work trips for Wilson\u2019s wife to accompany him because he had a stroke a few years ago and has been advised by a physician not to take overnight trips by himself, according to a person who has worked with Wilson.<\/p>\n A WPAi spokesperson said the firm couldn\u2019t comment on what it called \u201congoing litigation\u201d but added in a statement: \u201c[I]t\u2019s clear that Mr. Wilson has not been forthcoming about the circumstances leading to his departure. We are focused on moving forward and are relieved that this challenging chapter is behind us.\u201d The spokesperson declined to comment when asked about the details of the litigation.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Axiom Strategies, the mega Republican consulting firm owned by Jeff Roe and one of the minority investors in WPAi, declined to comment.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Wilson used WPAi money to pay an employee of his personal real estate business, Carver Management, to work a full time job for that real estate entity, according to two people familiar with the matter. A document reviewed by POLITICO also shows that the employee in question worked full-time for Carver. WPA also rents its Edmond, Oklahoma, office space from Carver Management, according to local real estate records<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three of the people directly familiar with the matter said there had been surprise transfers from WPAi to Carver this year. In April, $40,000 was sent from WPAi to Carver, and $20,000 was sent in September, two of the people said. This year, WPAi has paid for Carver\u2019s insurance coverage and building association dues, according to two of the people.<\/p>\n Wilson said that WPAi paid a \u201chighly reduced price per square foot\u201d for rent from his real estate firm and Carver loses money on the space every month. He also said that the employee in question was paid for Carver work by that firm, not by WPAi.<\/p>\n Such expenses have hurt the company\u2019s bottom line in the last year, according to three of the people familiar with the company. Some vendors have not received payments on time, and non-sales staff received their quarterly bonuses late for several quarters and not at all in the second quarter, said one of the people. That left employees angry, the person said, since the bonuses account for a sizable portion of their election-year income.<\/p>\n This past cycle, WPAi, which Wilson founded in 1998, has done work for numerous Republicans, including the Congressional Leadership Fund, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Reps. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), according to FEC records.<\/p>\n Wilson\u2019s dismissal comes after his CFO, Catherine Gryder, was fired from WPAi in November 2023 for her own use of company cash, according to two people familiar with the matter. She was fired a few days after her fianc\u00e9 at the time had come to the firm\u2019s office asking for a check for a painting job he had done for the office even though it didn\u2019t need to be painted, according to one of the people. That raised alarm bells with a WPAi staffer, who then told Wilson about the incident and set off an internal investigation.<\/p>\n Wilson went to the police, and Oklahoma prosecutors charged Gryder in June with one felony count of embezzlement over $1,000. She pleaded not guilty and appeared in court in late November as the case winds its way through the court system, according to court records<\/a>. An Edmond police report<\/a> also said that Gryder had admitted to embezzling more than $11,000 from WPAi and Carver \u201cbut planned to pay it all back,\u201d and actually did send a $16,000 check to Wilson\u2019s attorney. The incident has not previously been reported.<\/p>\n Gryder\u2019s lawyer declined to comment.<\/p>\n Wilson also declined to comment on specifics of the Gryder case, saying it\u2019s an ongoing criminal matter. In a statement released before his own departure from the firm, he said: \u201cThis has been the most challenging experience of my professional career. Throughout this ordeal, I have strived to act in accordance with my faith and uphold my personal integrity. My primary focus has been, and continues to be, shielding our employees and clients from any fallout. I remain unwavering in my commitment to these principles.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the police report, Gryder quietly siphoned off money, spent money on a company owned by her romantic partner and used a WPAi business account to pay for her personal insurance and phone accounts.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lot of moving money around and trying to hide what she was doing,\u201d said Bill Simmons, who was COO of WPAi at the time and left at the end of August.<\/p>\n This was the second time that Gryder had allegedly done this to a firm owned by Wilson. In 2019, according to the police report, she charged around $17,000 to $18,000 in items from Apple\u2019s music store to a business credit card owned by a firm of Wilson\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cChris, being who he is, tried to work with this person, offer a sense of forgiveness and try to keep moving forward, but the second time was so egregious, there was just no opportunity,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cSo once we discovered it, she was fired immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n Gryder\u2019s sparse LinkedIn profile<\/a>, which still carries her maiden name Catie Ross, calls herself a \u201cChristian. Mom. Wife. Aunt\u201d and says she is an \u201cexperienced accountant with a demonstrated history of working in the accounting industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Two decades ago, Wilson was fired<\/a> by his polling firm\u2019s then-parent company Qorvis and sued for allegedly \u201cstealing corporate secrets and cash while plotting to launch a competing firm,\u201d accusations that he denied, in a case that was eventually settled. Wilson was also sued<\/a> in 2021 by his ex-wife, who claimed he had continued to improperly use a data software platform to collect voter data that she had gotten in the divorce.<\/p>\n Wilson is disputing the allegations in court and Leonard, his lawyer, said \u201cthe lawsuit has no bearing\u201d in facts.<\/p>\n