Chris Wilson, the founder and CEO of top Republican polling firm WPA Intelligence, was fired after a company audit found he may have used company funds to pay for personal expenses, according to two people familiar with the matter.
This comes after his company’s CFO was fired earlier this year and accused of embezzlement, a charge she has denied. This reportedly prompted WPAI executives to begin investigating how Wilson spent company funds.
According to sources, two external audit firms were hired to conduct an investigation and two business consultants were later hired to restructure the company and restore profitability. Wilson, who worked on behalf of Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz as president, was fired on Dec. 5 and is no longer listed on the company’s website.
An audit of the company’s finances found that Wilson had used company funds over the past several years for items that could have been personal expenses, including vacations, medical bills and hiring a nanny. situation. According to the two people, Wilson sometimes used money from WPai to pay a significant portion of his personal credit card bills and also used it for company business. The people declined to share the audit with POLITICO.
People in this story have been granted anonymity to disclose sensitive personnel matters.
Wilson’s attorney, Ryan Leonard, said the claims about Wilson’s firing were “defamatory and false.”
“Chris’s former business partner at WPai has always had complete transparency about every aspect of their business, including every single business transaction,” he said in a statement. “The timing of these claims is particularly surprising given that Chris’ salary has actually increased since the recent audit was completed. Although Chris left the company following the recent election, we wish his former team members at WPAI the best.”
“I am confident that my record of ethical leadership and professional achievement speaks for itself,” Wilson said in a text message to POLITICO before he was fired from WPAi.
“When you run a company, sometimes the business and the personal become intertwined,” he said, noting that at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he paid the full salary of all WPai employees from his personal bank account. Someone should be fired. (He later said he never paid the money back.)
According to a person who worked with Wilson, WPAI covered several business trips where Wilson’s wife, who suffered a stroke several years ago, would accompany him because she had been advised by doctors not to go on overnight trips alone.
A WPai spokesperson said the company could not comment on “pending litigation,” but added in a statement: “We are focused on moving forward and are relieved that this difficult chapter is behind us.” A spokeswoman declined to comment when asked about the details of the lawsuit.
A spokeswoman for Axiom Strategies, a large Republican consulting firm owned by Jeff Roe and one of WPai’s minority investors, declined to comment.
Earlier this year, Wilson used WPAI funds to pay employees of his private real estate business, Carver Management, to work full-time for the real estate company, according to two people familiar with the matter. Documents reviewed by POLITICO show the employee in question worked full-time for Carver. WPA also leases office space in Edmond, Oklahoma, from Carver Management, according to local property records.
Three people with direct knowledge of the matter said there was a surprise move this year from WPai to Carver. In April, $40,000 was sent from WPai to Carver, and in September, $20,000 was sent, the two people said. This year, WPai paid Carver’s insurance coverage and building society membership fees, according to the two people.
Wilson said WPai paid rent from his real estate company at a “significantly discounted price per square foot,” and Carver lost money on the space every month. He also said the employee in question was paid for Carver’s work by that company and not by WPAI.
Those costs hurt the company’s bottom line last year, according to three people familiar with the company. Some suppliers were not paid on time, and non-sales employees received their quarterly bonuses late for several quarters and none at all in the second quarter, one of the people said. The person said the bonus angered employees because it represented a significant portion of their election year income.
Founded by Wilson in 1998, WPAI has worked for numerous Republican lawmakers, 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 CFO, Catherine Gryder, was fired from WPai in November 2023 for using the company’s cash for herself, according to two people familiar with the matter. According to one of the officials, she was fired just days after her then-fiancé came to the company’s offices and demanded a check for painting work he did at the office, even though he didn’t have to do the painting. This raised the alarm among WPai employees, who informed Wilson about the incident and launched an internal investigation.
Wilson called police, and Oklahoma prosecutors in June charged Greider with embezzlement of more than $1,000. Court records show she pleaded not guilty and appeared in court in late November as the case progressed through the court system. According to an Edmond police report, Gryder admitted to embezzling more than $11,000 from WPai and Carver, but “planned to pay it all back” and actually sent a check for $16,000 to Wilson’s attorney. The incident has not been previously reported.
Greider’s attorney declined to comment.
Wilson also declined to comment on the specifics of Greider’s case, calling it an ongoing criminal matter. In a statement released before leaving the company, he said: “This has been the most difficult experience of my professional career. Throughout this ordeal, I have tried to act on my faith and maintain my personal integrity. My primary focus has been and will continue to be protecting our employees and customers from fallout. “I remain steadfast in my commitment to uphold these principles.”
According to police reports, Greider quietly siphoned off the money, spending it on companies owned by his mistress and using a WPai business account to pay for personal insurance and phone accounts.
“She was moving a lot of money around and trying to hide what she was doing,” said Bill Simmons, who was WPai’s COO at the time and left the company in late August.
This was the second time Gryder had done this to a company owned by Wilson. In 2019, she charged approximately $17,000 to $18,000 in items from the Apple Music Store to a corporate credit card owned by Wilson’s company, according to a police report.
“Chris tried to work with the guy, ask for forgiveness and move on, but the second time it was so serious that there was no chance,” Simmons said. “So as soon as we found that out, she was immediately fired.”
Gryder’s rare LinkedIn profile, which still goes by her maiden name, Catie Ross, calls herself a “Christian.” mom. ma’am. “My aunt,” she says, “is an experienced accountant with experience working in the accounting industry.”
Twenty years ago, Wilson was fired from his polling company’s parent company, Qorvis, and sued for allegedly “stealing trade secrets and cash while conspiring to form a rival company,” but the case was eventually settled. . Wilson was also sued in 2021 by his ex-wife, who claimed he continued to improperly use a data software platform to collect voter data obtained during their divorce.
Wilson is contesting the charges in court, and his attorney, Leonard, said “the lawsuit really has no point.”
