Chris Wilson, founder and chief executive of the leading Republican polling firm, WPA Intelligence, was fired after company audits found that he likely used company money to pay for personal expenses, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.
It comes after her company’s chief financial officer was fired and accused of embezzlement earlier this year, a charge she denies. That led people on WPAi’s leadership team to begin investigating how Wilson had spent the company’s money, according to the people.
Two outside auditing firms were hired to conduct investigations and then two business consultants were hired to restructure the company and restore its profitability, according to the people. Wilson, who worked on behalf of presidential efforts for Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz, was fired Dec. 5, according to the people, and is no longer on the company’s roster. website.
Audits of the company’s finances found that in recent years Wilson used firm cash to pay for items that were likely personal expenses, such as vacations, health care expenses and the use of a babysitter, according to five people with direct knowledge of the company. situation. Wilson sometimes used WPAi 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.
The people in this story were granted anonymity to disclose sensitive personal matters.
Ryan Leonard, an attorney representing Wilson, called the allegations behind Wilson’s firing “defamatory and false.”
“Chris’s former business partners at WPAi have at all times had complete transparency in all aspects of the business, including every commercial transaction,” he said in a statement. “The timing of these allegations is particularly surprising given that, after completing a recent audit, Chris received a raise. While Chris recently left the company after the election, he wishes his former team members at WPAi all the best.”
In a text message to POLITICO before he was fired from WPAi, Wilson said he was “confident that my record of ethical leadership and professional achievement speaks for itself.”
“When you run a company, business and personal sometimes become intertwined,” he said, noting that he paid three full paychecks for all WPAi employees at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic out of his personal bank account so as not to having to fire someone. (He said he didn’t reimburse himself afterwards.)
WPAi covered some work trips for Wilson’s wife to accompany him because he suffered a stroke a few years ago and a doctor recommended he not take overnight trips alone, according to a person who worked with Wilson.
A spokesperson for WPAi said the company could not comment on what it called “ongoing litigation,” but added in a statement: “[I]It is clear that Mr. Wilson has not been forthcoming about the circumstances that led to his departure. “We are focused on moving forward and are relieved that this challenging chapter is behind us.” The spokesperson declined to comment when asked about the details of the litigation.
A spokesman for Axiom Strategies, the Republican mega-consulting firm owned by Jeff Roe and one of the minority investors in WPAi, declined to comment.
Earlier this year, Wilson used money from WPAi to pay an employee of his personal real estate business, Carver Management, to work full time 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 leases its office space in Edmond, Oklahoma, to Carver Management, according to local real estate records.
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’s insurance coverage and building association dues, according to two of the people.
Wilson said WPAi paid a “very low price per square foot” to rent from his real estate company and Carver loses money on the space every month. He also said the employee in question received money from that company, not WPAi, for Carver’s work.
Such expenses have hurt the company’s results over the past year, according to three of the people familiar with the company. Some suppliers have not received payments on time and non-sales staff received their quarterly bonuses late for several quarters and none in the second quarter, one of the people said. That angered employees, the person said, since bonuses account for a sizable portion of their election-year income.
In this past cycle, WPAi, which Wilson founded in 1998, has worked 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.
Wilson’s firing comes after his chief financial officer, Catherine Gryder, was fired from WPAi in November 2023 over her own use of company cash, according to two people familiar with the matter. She was fired a few days after her then-fiancé arrived at the company office asking for a check for a painting job she had done for the office, even though it didn’t need to be painted, according to one of the people. That raised alarm among a WPAi staff member, who later told Wilson about the incident and triggered an internal investigation.
Wilson went to police, and Oklahoma prosecutors charged Gryder in June with felony embezzlement of more than $1,000. He pleaded not guilty and appeared in court in late November as the case moved through the court system, according to court records. An Edmund police report He also said Gryder had admitted to embezzling more than $11,000 from WPAi and Carver “but planned to pay it all back,” and in fact sent a $16,000 check to Wilson’s attorney. The incident had not been previously reported.
Gryder’s attorney declined to comment.
Wilson also declined to comment on specific details of the Gryder case, saying it is an ongoing criminal matter. In a statement issued before his departure from the firm, he said: “This has been the most challenging experience of my professional career. Throughout this ordeal, I have strived to act on my faith and defend my personal integrity. My primary goal has been, and continues to be, to protect our employees and customers from any consequences. “I remain unwavering in my commitment to these principles.”
According to the police report, Gryder quietly diverted money, spent money at a company owned by his romantic partner, and used a WPAi business account to pay his personal insurance and phone bills.
“There was a lot of money moving and trying to hide what she was doing,” said Bill Simmons, who was WPAi’s chief operating officer at the time and left at the end of August.
This was the second time Gryder allegedly did this to a company owned by Wilson. In 2019, according to the police report, he charged between $17,000 and $18,000 worth of items from the Apple Music Store to a business credit card owned by a Wilson company.
“Chris, being who he is, tried to work with this person, offer him a sense of forgiveness and try to move on, but the second time it was so egregious that there was just no chance,” Simmons said. “So once we found out, they fired her immediately.”
Gryder’s shortage LinkedIn profilewho still goes by her maiden name Catie Ross, calls herself a “Christian.” Mother. Wife. Auntie” and says she is an “experienced accountant with a demonstrated history of working in the accounting industry.”
Two decades ago, Wilson was fired by the then-parent company of his polling company, Qorvis, and sued him for allegedly “stealing corporate secrets and cash while conspiring to launch a competing company,” accusations he denied, in a case that was eventually settled. wilson was also sued in 2021 by his ex-wife, who claimed that he had continued to improperly use a data software platform to collect voter data that she had obtained during the divorce.
Wilson is disputing the allegations in court and Leonard, his attorney, said “the lawsuit has no bearing” on the facts.
