Dan Price, the tech entrepreneur who attracted international attention after setting the minimum wage at his company at $70,000, has denied allegation of domestic violence.

According to a 3,500-plus word feature on the co-founder and chief executive officer of payments company Gravity, published by Bloomberg Businessweek on Tuesday, Price’s ex-wife, who now goes by the name of Kristie Colón, has described described being physically abused by Price in a soon-to-be released video. Price denied the allegation to Businessweek, saying: “The events that you described never happened.”

Price also denied the claims of abuse to the Guardian via a statement released by the company’s spokesperson:

We’ve been floored at the attention our story has gotten over the past year, and inspired by the millions all around the globe who have engaged and shared their stories with us. Unfortunately, people in the public eye are subject to speculation and criticism. Sometimes it’s fair, other times it isn’t. The recent story in Businessweek contained reckless accusations and baseless speculations that are unequivocally false. As a company, we’ve faced many challenges in our history. Each time we’ve banded together, worked hard and focused on our mission to help our community businesses, we have eventually emerged stronger. This has been a truly memorable year in many ways. We’re looking forward to working harder than ever in pursuit of our mission.

Bloomberg Businessweek told the Guardian that they stand by their reporting.

Colón recorded a talk at the University of Kentucky on 28 October as part of the TEDx program. According to TED, a nonprofit designed to spreading ideas through short talks, TEDx was created to support independent organizers who want to hold TED-like events in their own community.

Colón’s speaker biography for the event includes a line that reads: “Kristie was married at 20, divorced at 27, and lived through a relationship that was abusive in every sense of the word.”

Price has previously described his divorce as amicable. The couple reportedly married at 20 after Colón’s Christian parents asked them to wed or end their relationship.

In an interview with Price, Bloomberg reporter Karen Weise asked him to comment on the allegations made by Colón in her talk. According to Colón in May 2006 her husband – she never named Price in the talk – “threw me to the ground and got on top of me. He started punching me in the stomach and slapped me across the face.” Colón also told the audience at the talk that at one time she had locked herself in her car, “afraid he was going to body-slam me into the ground again or waterboard me in our upstairs bathroom like he had done before”.

Price told Bloomberg that these events never happened. Bloomberg declined to discuss whether they had confirmed the contents of the TEDx talk with Colón. Colón did not respond to requests for comment.

The talk’s organizers at the University of Kentucky said they could not disclose any additional information about the event but said a video of the talk would be released on 7 December.



An account associated with Colón’s website kristiewashere.com, tweeted out the link to Bloomberg article on Tuesday, saying: “That one time my TEDxUKY talk showed up at the very end of a Bloomberg article ...”

That one time my TEDxUKY talk showed up at the very end of a Bloomberg article... https://t.co/2eacm5hGyK — Kristie Colón (@kristiecolon1) December 1, 2015

Price first made the headlines in April when he announced that he was taking a pay cut in order to pay all the 120 employees of his Seattle-based company at least $70,000. Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont and would-be Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted praise of Price and even appeared alongside him at a segment on MCNBC’s Morning Joe show.

“What Dan has done is not only extraordinary for his own employees. I hope it sets example for companies all over the country,” Sanders said at the time.

Price has stood behind his decision to pay all of his staff at least $70,000 a year despite the criticism that has accompanied the worldwide fascination with his wage-experiment. In a recent interview with the Guardian, he said: “The wider interest [in the wage experiment] means we want it to work economically too. I want us to inspire other bosses to do something similar.”